Capturing a heart
by Freezingice55
Summary: 5 years after the invasion of Konoha by the Akatsuki, Hinata, Naruto, Sakura, Chouji, Shikamaru and Lee were sent out to recapture Sasuke and destroy his team hawk. Wat will happen when there is unusual chemistry between Hinata and Sasuke? Hinaxsasu OCC
1. Chapter 1

1**Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto, characters, or etc.

Hello every one! Please be easy on me since this is my first fanfictional story as well as fiction ever written. :) Also please give me constructive feedback so I may improve for future chapters/work.

**Prologue**

5 years has passed since Konoha village was attacked by the Akatsuki members. Madara Uchiha, Pain, Konan, Kisame, and Zetsu were all exterminated in an all out battle with Naruto and the Toad family, but the destruction they left were devastating. However, the spirit of the Konoha people were strong, and under the superior guidance and leadership of Tsunade-sama, the fifth Hokage of Konoha Village, the people were able to stand steady on their feet, unite and reconstruct the beautiful village they once had. Till this day, the reconstruction continues.

While Tsunade-sama overlooks the construction of houses and other imperative operations that continue to bring revenue into the village, she still worry about one problem: the recovery of Sasuke. Tsunade-sama knows that news regarding the Akatsuki's defeat had already reached Team Hawk, and she thought it was strange that Sasuke has not returned yet. She is not afraid that they will attack the village for she is completely confident in Naruto's ability to fight them off. Also seeing that Naruto has matured in mind and body, she knows he is capable of taking over the village if need be. The only thing that is ailing her is what is Sasuke planning out there. She knows Madara is not a simple man, and may have left his only descendant to rain havoc among the ninja villages across the nation. In addition to that, who knows what kind of lies and stories he planted inside Sasuke's head. Thus, the only way to make sure nothing happens in the future, and for the welfare of Konoha citizens she is going to send a special force to retrieve Sasuke.

One early morning, in Tsunade-sama's office:

Tsunade says to Shizune, "Call forth the people I have on the list. I have a special mission for them which cannot be delayed." Shizune took the slip of paper from Tsunade's hand and looked at it for a few seconds. Though she was somewhat puzzled as to what the mission was, she replied "Yes, Tsunade-sama."

After an hour of waiting, a group of ninjas appeared before her. "All right," said Tsunade "as you know it has been five years since the Akatsuki incident in our village. I am grateful for the help you have given to fellow Konoha people, and I call you forth because this will help secure the peace that we have re-established here. I need for all you to retrieve Sasuke and disband or destroy Team Hawk. Shikamaru, I will have you as the leader of the group. Naruto, Hinata, Chouji, Sakura, and Lee, I will assist in this assignment. You cannot fail for this village counts on you. Naruto, I believe you will be able to convince your friend to return to us. If anything happens, send a messenger back the village and we will send reinforcements immediately. Now go!"

Shizune looked worriedly towards Tsunade and says "Do you think they can really get Sasuke back?" Tsunade look confidently out the window towards her village and replies, "I'm sure they can."

**Chapter 1**

An hour after the meeting, the members of the retrieval team went back home to collect the things they needed for the duration of the mission. While Naruto was packing some money and his shuriken, he stared at the picture that was on top of the cabinet. It was a picture of Sakura, Sasuke and him when they first formed the Kakashi team. However with Kakashi dead after the Akatsuki invasion and Sasuke gone, the only remaining members were Sakura and him. Just seeing the photo harden his resolve to get Sasuke back. In completing his packing, he set out for the village gate. On the other hand, Sakura were carrying the same emotions as she head out for the village gate as well.

At the gate awaiting Sakura and Naruto's arrival were Shikamaru, Chouji, Hinata and Lee. Shikamaru was contemplating about the strategy they should use against Sasuke and his Team Hawk. While he was doing that, Chouji had just finished one bag of Calbee chips and reaching for another one that he had stashed away in his snack pack. Lee was warming up his body in throwing some kicks and punches here and there. In the procession of all this, Hinata hid under a tree and worrying about how Naruto feels at this moment. _Naruto-kun probably feels it's his duty to retrieve Uchiha-san for the sake of team Kakashi. He always puts the responsibility onto himself. I just hope I could be of some use to every one in the group. No, (_she shakes her head) _I should have more confidence in myself. I should put all my strength and effort into assisting Naruto-kun. _A sudden breeze took Hinata from her thoughts, and appearing at the gate was Sakura and Naruto. Their serious expressions made it seem like they were ready for anything.

Seeing that every one was here, Shikamaru mutters under his breath, "Ah, damn. I was hoping you guys would be late so I can rest for a bit longer." Standing up from his crouching position, he says, "Well since you guys are here, let me review what we're suppose to do. We need to get Sasuke back without harming him. But from what I know, Team Hawk are composed of formidable ninjas. The fifth Hokage gave me some information, so when the time arrives, I will come up with a strategy that you guys must follow, understand?" Everybody nodded. Scratching his head, Shikamaru continued, "Okay, Hinata I need you to use your byakugan to scout ahead for hidden traps and enemies. Lee, you will stay behind the group and deflect any back attacks, but stick close to the group. Chouji will be on Naruto's left while Sakura on his right. Sakura, you are to reserve your chakra for healing our group members unless we are being attack by an enemy. Naruto, use you shadow clones to surround our group so they can warn us first about an attack as well as confuse the enemy about our numbers. Let's go!" In a flash, they were gone and jumping through the forest, heading in the direction of the Sand Village.

As they were jumping through the trees, Shikamaru asks, "Hinata, do you see anything?"

Hinata shakes her head and answered, "No."

Naruto was getting somewhat impatient with the pace they were going at, so he created a few more shadow clones, and sent them ahead of the group to look out for enemies and ambushes. "You can leave it to me dattebayo!" Being familiar with Naruto impatient nature, Shikamaru thought that he'll just leave it to Naruto then. "Hinata, you can stop using your byakugan for now and conserve energy. Naruto will take care of the rest. But stay in front of the group in case anything happens," Shikamaru ordered. He was confident that Hinata was more than capable of taking care of things. From what he heard, in her last few practices with Neiji, it ended in stalemate. Though it somehow had surprised him at first, he knew Hinata had the potential to improve and surpass Neiji himself. After all, Hinata has Neiji's careful thinking and agility, and Naruto's determination. The possibilities were endless.

As the group neared the threshold of Konoha Forest, the sun was already setting. They decided to camp out, and rest so they can regain their strength. When it was time to sleep, Naruto, Hinata and Sakura was ordered to take the night shift and make sure they will not be attacked. Since the night was quiet, Naruto's, Sakura and Hinata's began to stir in each of their minds.

Naruto stared straight into the fire, and he thought of what Sasuke is doing. He couldn't help but feel a bit agitated at the fact that Sasuke is still planning something stupid like attacking the village. He was not able to accept the fact that Sasuke allied himself with the Akatsuki. In a very quiet voice, he declared, "I will get Sasuke back no matter what. If he doesn't want to, then too bad." Throwing a piece of twig into the pyre, he continued to stare into the fire.

Sakura was a determined as Naruto, but she did not want to resort to violence. Over the 5 years, her feelings for Naruto had grown stronger. The way he saved the village, his determination, and his big heart made her change her feelings about him. And seeing the fustration in his eyes made her want to comfort him, but she did not know how. She can only do what she can, and that is to assist Naruto in every way possible.

While those two were lost in their thoughts, Hinata, too, was thinking about the possible upcoming battle with Sasuke and his lackeys. Sasuke's sharingan and her byakugan are well-matched, but she's not too sure about his mangekyou sharingan. If she was to fight him, she'll have to be extra careful. She'll have to plan out a strategy to fight Sasuke. But for now, she felt very icky, and needed a bath. Hinata got up from her seat, and walked over to Sakura informing that she will be back soon. She says to Sakura, "I'll scout the area for threats, and I'll back in 10 minutes. If anything happens, I'll use the emergency signal lighter." Sakura nodded her head and went back to contemplating over her issues.

Hinata jumped quickly from tree to tree and finally she reached the water fall. Her body was plastered with sweat from a whole day of traveling and she couldn't wait to get into the water. She quickly peeled off her clothing and dived into the water, becoming refreshed from the coldness of it. While she was in the water, she began practicing her jutsus and fist style techniques. Her movements were elegant, and powerful. Over the years, her body developed in ways she would never have imagined. Her arms were long and graceful, as well as her legs, they have grown long and thin. Her neck and waist was slender. Her skin reflected the pale moonlight with a hint of blush, which made her beauty even more captivating. All of a sudden, she heard some rustling from the trees that startled her. She rushed to pick up her clothes to cover herself, and yelled "Who is there?" However, no one answered her so she used her byakugan to scan the area. The intruder was very quick, but she only the residual chakra he or she left behind. Wasting no time, Hinata put her clothes on and ran back to the base, and alerted Naruto and Sakura what had happened. Their senses were heightened through the night, so this situation would not occur again. But who was that person that is sneaking around them? Hinata thought. Before they knew it, the sun was rising above the hills.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Characters are not created by me, but by the author that created Naruto. Everything else is fictional...

Here is a new chapter for the story, and again, I would like my fellow readers to leave me reviews and constructive feedback because I would like to improve in my writing. Also this is my first time writing anything fictional, so please be patient with me :) Love you all!

Note: May contain spoilers (in either jutsus and story plot of the original Naruto series) Also mild language.

Italics are thoughts. Unfortunately I was getting lazy with quotations, therefore it explains why they are there.

**Chapter 2**

At day break, the group, again, was on the move, and they were getting closer to their destination, which was located between the Sand and Konoha village. All of a sudden, an explosive note detonated and blew up right below Naruto's feet. Luckily, Naruto and the others were able to evade the explosion, but as each of them landed on another branch, several other explosive notes were detonated as well. They kept jumping from one branch to another, but there were countless explosive. Due to the fact that the explosives well-hidden, the group was having a difficult time tracing it. Hinata understood that, so she quickly activated her byakugan to scan the area for the seals. Shocked, she stared at the chakra explosives hidden in the cores of the trees that stretched 20 kilometers around them. Shikamaru noticed Hinata's reaction and asked, "What is it Hinata? What do you see?"

She replied hesitantly, "We're surrounded by explosive notes. It seems someone had set this trap for us. Could it be..."

Naruto caught on to what Hinata was hinting at. Surely Sasuke did not know they were arriving to capture him that soon. But most importantly, why was he doing this? Has he lost all sense of comradery between them, and has he forgotten the brotherly feelings that they shared 8 years ago? _Sasuke you damn fool!_ Thought Naruto.

Sakura also noticed what Hinata was trying to say. Instead of waiting for Hinata to continue to sentence, she answered for her, "It's Sasuke. He knows we're here, there is no doubt about that. Right now, we need to retreat and think of another way to get pass these explosives. Shikamaru, you have any suggestions?"

Shikamaru was trying to piece all the things together and create an escape strategy on the dot. He thought of one, but he needed to make sure it will work, so he asked Hinata, "Hinata, are there explosives embedded into the ground?"

Hinata quickly surveyed the area and answered, "Hai, there are more down there."

"Hmm... Naruto I want you to use your rasengan shuriken and throw it at the trees 7 kilometers away from us. It should create a big enough explosion on that side and create enough force to blow us backwards without us stepping on any of the branches. Hopefully, by that time we're blown back a few kilometers, the explosives that is detonated in this area will not hurt us."

"Leave it to me dattebayo!" In a few seconds, Naruto did kage bunshin no jutsu, and with the assistance of his kage, they helped him focus his energy into a ball of concentrated chakra. He also added the wind element into the rasengan, making it a rasengan shuriken. Naruto threw it from his hands with such force that it went flying. When the rasengan shuriken reached a tree that was 7 kilometers away, the trees around it was pulled into it, and exploded. The force was so powerful that it blew the group 4 kilometers back. As each of them landed on their feet, the trees that they were standing on, a couple of seconds ago, were completely destroyed.

"Phew. That was a close call," said Chouji.

Shikamaru made a head count of every one in case some one was missing. His eyes widened in alert, "Hinata, where is she?"

Naruto turned from side to side, searching their surroundings for Hinata, but she was no where to be found. "Damn it, she was caught in the explosion. We need to return and find her," yelled Naruto. In his heart, he hoped what he said did not happen because he did not want to see another friend of his to suffer on the account of him. Kakashi sensei, Ero senin and many more had died on his behalf. He did not want to have to carry this guilt burden that has been weighing down on his heart. Without waiting for every one's consensus, he departed for the blown up forest.

**______________**

Meanwhile, Hinata was chasing after a white robed ninja that had appeared around the vicinity of the explosion. Hinata highly suspected that this person was the one who planted the explosives and possibly Sasuke himself. If this person is not Sasuke, there is a still a chance that by following him she'll be able to discover Sasuke's whereabouts. She did not want to worry her comrades, so along the way she marked some of the trees to give them clues regarding the direction of her chase.

Her target was a quick one, and though she activated her byakugan, it was still quite difficult to keep him in her line of vision. Suddenly, the body of chakra that she followed disappeared. Hinata was worried that he eluded her grasp, so she quicken her pace but stopped dead in her tracks to only discover a huge mountain towering overhead. _He must be hiding somewhere on the mountain. _She swiftly used her kunai to mark one of the rocks at the foot of the mountain with an "x" and a horseshoe symbol, and jumped up the mountain. But as she was jumping up, she felt her chakra being de-stabilized, making it difficult for her to control. Then she noticed a weird seal carved into the mountain side. It glowed in reaction to her chakra, which is the reason for her unstable chakra flow.

Before she had a chance to figure out how to deactivate the seal, the ninja in a white robe ambushed her. Hinata was able to dodge some of the punches that was thrown at her, but the ninja's movements were so quick that the kunai he held scratched her upper arm. _Darn it. He's too fast. _The white ninja was wearing a mask to disguise his identity, so Hinata was not sure whether he was Sasuke. She did not quite understand, if it was Sasuke, why would he cover his face. Obviously there is no reason for such secrecy, so why? Her mind was plagued with many questions, but she can't get answers for them until she defeats the person in front of her. She gets into the Juken stance, preparing herself to attack the ninja's chakra points. She noticed there was something unsusual about his chakra flow, not only did it go all over the place in his body, but the flows were strong. His chakra level was apparently higher than hers, so she'll have to be quick and efficient in her attacks. She charged towards her opponent and aimed for his shoulder chakra point, but it missed because he jumped above her. His hands suddenly transformed into snakes, and he flailed them at Hinata. In order to dodge that attack, Hinata tumbled and rolled out of the ninja's range.

"Huh huh huh, well the Hyuuga successor has improved a lot. Perhaps, I'll let you become my vessel."

_Wait. Where have I heard that voice before? _thought Hinata. Before she could recall who it was, the ninja pulled off his mask. It was Kabuto. However there was something different about him. His skin was marked with squiggly lines, and his eyes resembled a snake's, very much like Orochimaru.

"As you can see, I'm in dire need of entertainment. You see, Sasuke betrayed me and completely obliterated me, but my faithful servant, Kabuto sacrificed his life for me. Now I inhabit his body, but he is a poor vessel, and I need another one. May be I'll give you the honor of being me next one." Orochimaru licked his lips and grinned at Hinata.

"I'm not going to let you do that." Hinata declared confidently.

"My, my. Isn't someone," he suddenly ceased his grinning and stared straight at Hinata. In a blink of the eye, he was right in front of Hinata, and continued, "getting too cocky." Hinata was backed up toward the cliff and she had no where else to run.

"You don't scare me at all," cried Hinata. Hinata activated her byakugan and performed the Protection of eight trigrams sixty-four palm jutsu. Orochimaru was surprised by the attack and tried to avoid the jutsu. But his late reactions caused him sustain a few injuries, mostly his arms.

"You bitch! You'll pay for this!" roared Orochimaru. All of a sudden, a long white snake came out from Orochimaru's mouth. He was covered in spit and slime from head to tail. Once he was completely out, he slammed his tail against the side of the mountain, causing the rocks above them to fail down. The floor was shaky as well, making it impossible for Hinata to stand in place. While Hinata was struggling to regain balance, Orochimaru coiled around Hinata and squeezing her in a tight hold. "You are mine now." Hissed Orochimaru. Hinata could not move a single muscle, and she was finding it difficult to breathe. A few seconds later, Hinata was unconcious from the lack of oxygen.

Orochimaru was about to bite Hinata's neck, but out of no where appeared Sasuke. "Long time no see, my dear Sasuke. I've been looking for you everywhere," Orochimaru said it with feigned pleasure. But in an instant, his expression quickly changed to anger. "You traitor! How dare you disobey me when I was the one who gave you that power," he angrily hissed out.

"It's time to end this once and for all," Sasuke stated.

"Let's see how well you improved since the last time I saw you."

Sasuke seemed poised and relax in his stance. Instantly, his eyes changed from sharingan to mangekyo sharingan. Sasuke engulfed Orochimaru into his genjutsu, where Orochimaru was burning in a fire pit and his life was slowly being extinguished. Orochimaru struggled to break out of the genjutsu by disturbing the flow of his chakra but it was completely useless. Sasuke, in a flash, appeared right behind Orochimaru's head and using his chidori sharp spear to impaled him through the back of his head and out through his mouth.

"No one can control me, not even you," Sasuke calmly stated.

"Child, you have no idea, and there is still so much you need to learn," Orochimaru's words slowly died out as he collapsed on the ground. Orochimaru was defeated in this fight. For precaution, Sasuke beheaded Orochimaru and threw it down the mountain. Then he turns toward Hinata and stares at her for a moment. Without saying anything, he picks her up and puts her over his shoulder and jumps down the mountain. On reaching ground level, he runs west, where the dense forest covers any traces he leaves behind.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: Character concepts were not originated from me but the person who created Naruto. Story is also fictional.

Hello every one again, and thank you for the support of my first fictional story. :) I re-re-read the last few chapters that was written and I realized I overlooked several grammatical errors. I apologize for that. I hope you will continue to read my story!

Note: With each line that appears in the story, it means that it's jumping to another setting and group of characters.

**__________________________________________________________________________________**

At the bottom of the mountain, Orochimaru's head laid lifeless with his eyes closed. The place was soundless, because the bird sensed an unnatural aura emanating from the Orochimaru's head. Suddenly, some villages that were carrying bundled up wood on their back, walked near the foot of the mountain. They were conversing happily about how the harvest for this year was better than last year.

"Look at my veggies, they're juicy and tasty," villager one said with glee.

"Well, I guess our luck is good this year," villager two said with equal pleasure.

All of a sudden, villager one screams and falls to the ground writhing in pain. Villager two nervously asked, "What happened? Are you alright?" Villager one suddenly grips villager two by the arm and yanks it with such force that villager one's arm became dislocated. "Ah!" villager two yelped. Villager one slowly stood up and towered over villager two who was forced to back up, but his pain hindered his movements. Villager one then strangles villager two, and in a mere few seconds suffocated him. Squiggly lines spread all over villager one's body and when he lifted up his head, it was Orochimaru's face.

_________________________

Naruto was dashing towards the place where the forest was charred by the explosion.

"HINATA! HINATA!" He yelled into the dense forest. Instead of receiving a response, he was a bit unnerved by thes silence. _Where can you be Hinata?_

Sakura was the second person to arrive at the scene, and right behind her was Lee, Shikamaru and Chouji.

Sakura gently touched Naruto, asking, "Did you find her?" Her eyebrows were creased at the center with worry.

Naruto hang his head in disappointment and shook his head.

Lee put his hand on Naruto's other shoulder. Naruto turned his head to see Lee raising his thumb and smiling. "We'll definitely find her!"

Naruto raised his head and stared at the sky, praying that what Lee said was right. "Yosh! Let's keep searching for clues dattebayo!"

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As Sasuke travelled uphill through the thickly foliated forest, Hinata began to stir. Sasuke was aware of it, so he increased his speed. He was hoping that they could reach their destination before the Hyuuga girl wakes up. At least when she wakes up, she'll be under the supervision of his team mates. Now that he thinks back, he was not fully sure why he had taken her with him. Firstly, he left his headquarters just so he can hunt down Orochimaru and eliminate him. In doing this, he was hoping to disconnect the control Orochimaru had over him. A couple of years ago, he thought that he had defeated Orochimaru and erased his presence within his body, but that did not seem to be case, which was evident in his fight with Itachi. As long as he had the curse seal and Orochimaru was alive, their connection was unbreakable. However this problem was now eliminated, and now, in its place, was a different problem. What was he going to do with Hinata Hyuuga? _May be I should have left her there and let the Konoha ninjas find her. _

Meanwhile, Hinata regained conciousness. She felt that she was being carried over the shoulder by someone, but who it was she could not guess. She opened her eyes and tried to turn her head to get a look at her rescuer. Out of shock and surprise, she gasped, "Sasuke!" She tried to push herself off of him, but his hold was firm and it was very difficult to break free.

"You better stay still because there is no way you can win against me even if you try," Sasuke stated plainly.

Hinata was not about to surrrender to Sasuke because, after all, it was her mission to capture Sasuke and bring him back to Konoha Village. Since her hands were still free, she was able to do jutsus. So she quickly activated her byakugan and aimed for one of Sasuke's chakra spots. However, Sasuke was even faster and he threw Hinata off from her shoulder. Hinata landed steadily on the ground, and she was three feet away from Sasuke.

_I don't have time for this._ Sasuke ran towards Hinata in a blink of the eye, and appeared on the right side of Hinata. When he was about to hit her on the back of her head, Hinata blocked it with her right hand, and jabbed her left at Sasuke. Sasuke flashed to Hinata's right side and attempted the same move, but Hinata reacted with equal speed. Hinata jumped away from Sasuke and threw three shurikens at Sasuke. He dodged them by jumping up in the air only to dodge three other shurikens thrown at him. Hinata saw Sasuke's agility was incredible and it would be hard to defeat him just purely on speed. She must think of something quick.

Sasuke was getting more impatient by the minute. The longer this fight drags on, the higher chance of them being discovered by other people. He needs to end this now!

Hinata ran towards Sasuke trying to attack his chakra points, Sasuke jumped over and behind Hinata. Hinata spinned turn on her heel, and charged at Sasuke again. She aimed for his right shoulder, but failed due to Sasuke's parry. "It's my turn," said Sasuke. He grabbed Hinata by the arm and threw her up in the air. At the same, Sasuke jumped up in the air and hit Hinata's back, knocking her out cold. He, then, quickly grab hold of Hinata's body and slung her over his shoulder. He continued to walk uphill.

______________________________

Shizune knocked on Tsunade-sama's door and received approval for entering. Shizune told Tsunade, "Neji-kun has requested to see you."

Tsunade-sama was piled under large amount of paper work, and was scribbling away on the documents that required her signature. Without looking up, she nodded and said, "Let him in."

Neji entered the office and stood in front of Tsunade-sama's desk. "I heard that Naruto and the others were sent a mission to retrieve Sasuke. On this mission you also sent Hinata-sama. She will be inheriting the Hyuuga family title so she must be kept under strict supervision. The family wishes that I could accompany her on this mission, therefore I request for your permission to go and find them."

Tsunade-sama stopped scribbling and looked up for her paperwork. "I understand that Hinata's succession is a very important matter, considering that she is of age to do so. This means that her every move must be kept under close watch. And since most of the clan feels she is incapable of carrying on the family title because she is not as strong as you, her actions will affect the clan. On the contrary, I have total confidence in Hinata's abilities and think she can complete this mission along with every one else. You need to have a little more faith in her."

"But--"

Tsunade-sama held up her hand to stop any more arguments. "This meeting is adjourned, and you may return home." As soon as she said that, she returned to her paperwork.

Neji left the office, but he was not about to give up. He will return to the house to discuss this with Hiashi Hyuuga.

That night when he informed Hiashi what happened in Tsunade's office, Hiashi became concerned. "Neji, I will need you to go and bring Hinata back safe and soundly. If anything happens to her, it will become your dishonor. Understand?"

"Hai," answered Neji.

That night, Neji left the Konoha to follow out Hiashi Hyuuga's orders.

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The moonlight was streaming through the windows of a well-thatched wooden house. Lying on the ground, Hinata began to regain her senses. She pulls herself up into a sitting position and looked through the windows. She recalled that she was knocked out by Sasuke after that fight in the forest. But what now? Where was this place? _Naruto-kun and the others might be really worried right now. I hope they find the markings I left behind. _She pulled her knees up and hugged them to her chest while resting her head them. _I'll have to find a way to get out._

A door, a few feet away from Hinata, creaked slowly open and in comes Karin. "Here is your dinner," she lays a tray, carrying food, near Hinata and walks back out.

_Well, I should keep up my energy so I can get out of here and bring Sasuke back. _

Hinata picked up a pair of chopsticks from the tray and began eating.

Outside of the door, Sasuke was looking at Hinata through a peek hole on the door. He wanted to make sure that his captive was not going to attempt to starve herself to death. After watching for a minute or two, he walked to the living room where Karin was waiting.

"Sasuke, why did you bring someone back with you? At that, a Konoha ninja?" Karin crossed her arms over her chest. She was not liking this one bit.

"Doesn't matter. Just watch over her and feed her when you need to. That's all you need to do. I'm going to sleep now." He stopped Karin from asking any more questions and walked to his room.

Karin pouted, "Easy for you to say." She turned her head and stared at the room where Hinata was locked up.

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**It has taken my some time to think about the concept and how to progress the story. Right now, I think the development between Sasuke and Hinata is a bit slow, but the pace should pick up once they fall in love, I guess. **

**Thanks again for reading.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: Character concepts originated from the creator of Naruto and not me, everything else is fictional.**

**Hello every one, since I'll be busy with exams and papers, I might not be able to update as frequently as I did before. But I'll try my best to update as soon as I get the chance. Luv you guys!**

**Note: Italics are the character's thoughts. **

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Karin continued to stare at the door that kept Hinata inside the room. She just didn't understand why Sasuke would care whether Hinata was eating or not. Afterall, she most likely interfered with what Sasuke was doing, which led her to be captured by Sasuke. Usually, Sasuke would just destroy everything barricading between him and his goal, but bringing back a prisoner was very unusual.

Even though she has many questions boggling her at the moment, asking Sasuke about it would only anger him. With half of team hawk being gone, Sasuke and her were the only ones left. Before he used to be calm and assertive, but recently his temper seemed to blow up quite easily. Perhaps it's due to his discovery of the truth behind Madara's about Sasuke's older sibling, Itachi. Itachi seemed to love his brother very much and killed his entire Uchiha solely to protect his beloved Konoha village and his dear brother. But there is one point that Madara left out, which was Madara had conspired with the ANBU leader to spread such rumors about the Uchiha clan in order to force Itachi's hand in murder. When Sasuke heard about this, he had rebelled against Madara and attempted to kill, but failed because Madara's power was beyond his imagination. In the end, the only person who helped him avenge for all those deaths was Naruto and the Konoha Village. He felt ashamed of himself for what had happened, therefore he vowed never to step into the village ever again. However, it seems that the Hokage desired him to return otherwise this Hinata girl would not have been capture considering that this house layed some distance away from Konoha village. But what to do with her? Obviously, her companions will come searching for her, and through that they will discover their locality. This is a predicament, but she had an easy solution, which was to kill the girl and hide her body in a hidden area, which can delay her comrades search. So by the time they discover her corpse, Sasuke and her will be long gone. Only problem is Sasuke is not so willing to kill the Hyuuga girl. _Well I can do it. Yes, Sasuke will be angry, but once he understands why I am doing this, he'll forgive me. All I have to do his poison her food and we should be fine. But it is too late for this, I'll have to slip into her food early in the morning. _Satisfied with her plan, she walked happily upstairs and to her bedroom.

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Neji ran for one day and one night towards the direction that Naruto and his team went. He was thoroghly exhausted and had to rest. But then he discovers a thatched roof house 30 meters away. He used his byakugan to scan the house if there were any one living there, and discovered Hinata being held captive by Sasuke and another girl living in the house. This was certainly interesting, for he had not seen Sasuke for a long time. And most certainly, he could not face him alone considering his mangekyou sharingan and his overwhelmingly powerful chakra, most likely from Orochimaru's seal. He will need back up, but how to do it? _I know, I should try to find Naruto and the others to help me. I'm sure they are looking for Sasuke as well. _Deciding on this action, he runs east in hopes of finding Naruto's location.

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A light breeze was blowing through the barred windows in Hinata's room, startling her awake. In took her a few seconds to recall she was captured and that everything was not a dream even if she had hoped so.

She sighed, "What am I going to do?"

Suddenly in came Karin, who brought in a tray set with a bowl of rice and roasted sardine. "Here, eat it." She set the tray on the floor near Hinata. Karin glanced at Hinata from the side of her eye and said in a lowvoice, "You know, you are truly lucky that Sasuke didn't kill you. Maybe you'll released soon, who knows right?" You gets up and walks out the door. Leaving the door slightly ajar.

Hinata thought it was odd that the girl would say something like that. Also, why was she so careless as to leave the door open? _I'll just eat something and get out of here. Then I'll be able to inform the others about where Sasuke is._ She examined the food a bit, but assuming there was nothing suspicious about it, she ate and sneaked out the door. Turning her head left and right, she saw that everything was quiet and peaceful. Slowly and silently, she crept out the back door and into the forest. Karin watched the whole entire scene and smiled inwardly to herself thinking _Heh. That stupid girl, she'll get it soon enough. _

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Around noon, Sasuke exited his bedroom and asked "Karin, where is our captive?"

Karin was sweating a little due to her nervousness. She tried to steady herself and spoke normally, "I checked this morning and she was still there, but when I returned, she was gone. I tried to look for her, but I guess she's a long distance from here by now." She tried to sound nonchalant, "Well, now that she is gone, she highly possible that she's returning to her group. We should leave immediately, otherwise they will catch you and bring you back."

"You don't have to worry about that." Sasuke stepped towards Karin, making Karin blush a bright shade of red.

"W-w-wh-at is it Sa-sasu-ke?" She stuttered.

"Karin, do you know, you smell just like venom fel." He closes his eyes to sniff it, and his face scrunched together in revulsion.

"Ah! I must have gotten it on when I went out to do something." Flustered, Karin brushed at her clothes forcefully, attempting to brush off the scent. " Oh yeah, I made breakfast, it's in the kitchen. So go grab some for yourself. I'm going to go and take a bath. Be out in a bit." In one second, she fleeted out of the room and upstairs.

Sasuke somehow felt that Karin was acting awkwardly around him, being all flustered and nervous. He tried to brush it off, because he thought may be it's one of those girl things. "Whatever" Sasuke whispered to himself. He strolled toward the kitchen and found steaming rice with roasted sardine. There were also pickled radish and a small bowl of miso soup. Everything was prepared nicely, but Sasuke thought, _why go through all this trouble just for breakfast. She could have just made me ramen with some naruto. Naruto... urghh... Why did I have to bring him up in my head._

Suddenly something caught his attention. Some weird smell... he suddenly realized it was the same exact smell that Karin was emitting. _Why would she try to poison me?_ He sat there at the table, waiting for Karin's appearance. When she entered the kitchen, the first thing Sasuke grab her by the neck, lifting her high above the ground.

Karin was so shocked that she didn't know what to do. She was wriggling her body and she was finding it difficult to breathe by the minute. She struggled to say "Sa-sa-su-ke... (cough) wha-t (trying to breathe) happ-en-ed?"

"You tried to poison the food. I guess I can't trust anyone but myself." He glowered at Karin, causing her to shake uncontrollably. She never suffered such wrath from Sasuke before, and she was getting more and more frightened by the second.

"Le..t m-m-e, explain," she pleaded Sasuke. Sasuke just threw her down on the floor, and glared down at her.

"Go ahead. I'm listening."

It took her a few minutes before her breathing returned to normal. Huffingly, she explained, "It's not for you. It was for the Hyuuga girl. (Coughs) She was going to sneak out anyhow, so I thought why risk giving our position away. (Inhales) I poisoned her food as a precautious measure."

"You fool." Without another word, Sasuke left the house and ran into the forest. He can somewhat detect her presence, and she could not have ran that far considering the fact that she has consumed venom fel. The more she moves, the faster the poison will spread in her body. _Hopefully nothing happened._ Then he thought, he never allowed himself to hope in anything. How ironic.

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After 20 minutes of running in the forest, Hinata felt a sudden jolt of pain through her body. She tried to ignore it but the pain was unbearable and immobilized her. She laid on the ground inhaling and exhaling in short intervals. She felt her body going numb and cold. _What will I do?_ She felt herself falling ever slowly into the dark abyss, where her body was drowning and drowning and she can no longer herself back up. _Save me Naruto-kun_. Everything blacked out on her.

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**Again sorry people, but I'll be really busy with school work from here on out, so updates will be less frequent. :) But thank you for the support so far. I hope you enjoyed that.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hi there everyone!**

**Long time no see/ read, whichever. I know it has been awhile since I last updated my story, therefore here I am with the next chapter about the tribulations of our dear characters Sasuke and Hinata. What will happen to them now? Will there relationship develop further? Just you wait and see!**

**Disclaimers: Character concepts are credited to Kishimoto Masashi, the creator of Naruto. Everything else in the story is fictional and should not coincide with real life unless you live in an anime world. :-)**

**Note: Italics are thoughts and lines are an indication of change in setting and character P-O-V. Enjoy!**

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Sasuke was pouting at his brother, Itachi and whined, "Oniichan, it seems like you never have time for me anymore! I want to train to become a ninja like you." Little Sasuke puffed his cheeks to emphasize his discontent. Itachi closed his eyes for a moment and smiled at his younger sibling, "We'll train together once I come back. It shouldn't take long." Sasuke's face lit up at those words and he watched excitedly, as brother left. _Oniichan always keeps keeps his promise no matter what._ His anticipation kept him till late afternoon. When Itachi came home, they went to training grounds. Sasuke with his kunai and makibishi, was ready to strike at his brother. He had hoped that he showed some improvement this time. "Ready?" asked Itachi. Without answering, Sasuke ran towards his brother directing a kunai at him. However it missed since Itachi's movements were faster than his brother's. Itachi quickly appeared behind Sasuke tapping on his shoulder just to tease him. Sasuke spunned around with his kunai in hand and threw it towards his brother, but it stucked itself onto the tree. "You'll have to be faster than that if you want to catch me," Itachi whispered into Sasuke's ear. Fustrated at his own slowness, Sasuke tried throwing multiple makibishis at Itachi hoping that at least one will scratch his brother, but that didn't happen. Instead, Sasuke got pushed to the ground, and kunai at his neck. Itachi smiled down at his brother's startled face, and said, "Much better this time Sasuke." He stood up and stretched out a hand to help Sasuke up. "You need to plan your moves out more. We'll take some time to increase your speed as well. But overall well done Sasuke." Sasuke tried to stand up but his knee was injured and he was unable to stand up. Itachi knelt down next to Sasuke and said "Get on. I'll carry you home." Sasuke got on Itachi's back, and they went home together with smiles and happiness.

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It was awkward for Sasuke to suddenly recall those memories for it was buried deep within the crevices of his mind. He shook his head to clear up the confusion and the unsettling feelings that came with those flashbacks. He kept on running through the forest in search of Hinata, but she was still no where to be found. Suddenly he saw a pair of legs peering out through the bushes. Thinking that it was possibly Hinata, he swiftly ran over to it. Suddenly, the leg turned into a slithery thing and reached for Sasuke. Slightly startled, Sasuke jumped back to see what was happening. The body wreaked of dead corpse smell.

"Sssssassuke..." hissed a familiar voice. "Th-h-h-i-ss-ss t-imme youuuu won'ttt gettt-s a-way." Orochimaru's head popped out of the bushes and spurred directly towards Sasuke, his fangs ready to sink into his prey.

"After that time I decapitated your head, I didn't think you would easily come back to life. Seems like I underestimated you. But this time," Sasuke got into his chidori ready, "you won't be lucky."

"Ha ha ha ha... You think I didn't know you would use lightning on me. You foolish buffoon. I was the one who raised you and trained you to become what you are today. Otherwise you'll be nothing at all. You hear me. NOTHING!" Orochimaru, in a fit of rage, rushed toward Sasuke, with his mouth wide open. When he was about to snap at Sasuke, Sasuke evaded it by jumping to the left. Orochimaru continued to pursue Sasuke with his poisonous fangs, but Sasuke keeps evading it. This further irritated Orochimaru. Again Orochimaru hissed, "Is that all you can do Sasuke? Dodging my advances one by one?"

All of a sudden, Sasuke remembered that Hinata was poisoned and needed help soon. _How could I have forgotten? _Sasuke bit down on his lip. _There's no time to waste_.In a blink of an eye, Sasuke's eyes changed to a red color. "Katon: Gōryūka no Jutsu!" Sasuke launches a great dragon fire ball towards Orochimaru and he tried to dodge it but the fire was so big that it scorched him slightly. Orochimaru's eyes appeared to be more deadly now. His speed increased more than before and when he attempted to bite Sasuke in the neck, it missed Sasuke by an inch. Sasuke was getting more and more impatient knowing that Hinata's poisoned was probably at stage 2 now. Calming is mind down, he broke the seal on the back of his neck, transforming into a hideous monster. Then focusing on some of his chakra towards his eyes, he activated the mangekyou sharingan.

When Orochimaru stared into his eyes, his body automatically frozed in place. He felt his skin melting away, revealing his flesh which made him feel a bit insecure. Even with the knowledge that it was a genjitsu, the illusions were so real that he his heart skipped a few beats. Orochimaru bit down on his teeth and gritted out, "Is that all you can do Sasuke? Use your petty tactics against your helpless opponent?"

Sasuke thought Orochimaru's sarcasm was worse than ever. Perhaps he was becoming dillusional. _I'll put this monster out of its misery. _Sasuke readied his chokuto by electrifying it, and, in an instant stabbed it through Orochimaru. Orochimaru spat out some blood, but a faint smile appeared on his lips. "You think I didn't know you were going to do that. Ha ha ha. I was waiting for that electricity to rearrange the chakra flow in my body so I could break out of your ninjitsu. I know your abilities very well... Sasuke." Faster than lightning, Orochimaru chomped down on Sasuke's arm, causing him to blood. However Sasuke remained calm. All of sudden, Orochimaru was shivering all over. Then the shaking escalated to lurching, and Orochimaru exploded into pieces. All that was left on the ground was white slime and Orochimaru's eye balls, but the eye balls were gradually melting away as well.

_Where are you Hinata?_ Sasuke continued down the direction that he was heading towards before Orochimaru appeared. His heart was starting to beat a beat faster than it usually did. He wondered why...

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"Hinata... Hinata..." yelled a male's voice.

"I'm over here!" Hinata was waving at the male that was calling her name. Instead of turning towards her, the guy went the other way. "No! Please come back!" she yelled in urgency. She put both of her hands and waved it at the shadow that was disappearing from the horizon. "No! Please come back! I love you! Naruto-kun!"

Everything was blurred and tears were streaming down her eyes. Her heart felt shattered and broken. "I'm alone again. What am I going to do?" She broke into sobs and suddenly towering above her was her father, Neiji, and Hanabi. With condescending eyes, the stared down at her, making her feel puny and worthless.

"You have disgraced us the Hyuuga family," thundered her father.

"I thought you improved Hinata-sama, but I guess I was wrong," Neiji said it in a manner-in-fact tone.

"I don't have such a sister, who is a weakling and a shame on the family's name," Hanabi said in a denigrating tone.

"Please no! Please stop this. I beg of all you all, please I don't want to be a shame on the family. I will try even harder to prove myself worthy." Hinata's sobs slurred her words and pleas. She felt torn inside that her family had misunderstood her. Naruto-kun had rejected her. Even though she though Neiji thought differently of her, but she was worried that this day would come when all her hard work would vanish into thin air. Hinata shoke her head incessantly and repeatedly said, "No,no,no,no..." Suddenly, she felt herself grasping for air, and her heart throbbing in pain. She grabbed onto her chest wondering if she will die from all this sadness. Her family and Naruto were so far from her reach. The only thing that continued to resonate from her surroundings was the echoes of her sobs.

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Sasuke had ran through the forest for another few minutes and he finally found Hinata. She was basking under the ambient sunlight. Her face was slightly lit to showcase her pale skin and long sooted eyelashes. But her cheeks were the color of gray and her lips were purple. _The poison had already spread to second phase, this could be really bad._ He kneeled down next to Hinata's body and felt her pulse; it seemed that her heart rate was slowing down and her breathing had changed to short gasps. He lifted her into his arms, in a princess hold, and ran towards the direction of his house.

Lots of things were going through his mind at the moment. First, he was really worried about Hinata's condition and it seemed that closer they got toward the house the faster her breathing was. He was afraid that before they even reach the threshold of the house, she would already lie limp in his arms. For some reason, he never worried about this before since all he ever did was kill off people he didn't like. But, in not killing Hinata, does that mean he liked her? But why and how did it start? His was muddled from all the things happening around him. What should he do? He's not an indecisive person, but liking another was one thing he had forgotten since his brother's betrayal. His heart hasn't mended yet, so he wasn't sure whether he was ready for something like this.

After a few minutes of running, Sasuke finally reaches the house and he shouts our Karin's name to have her come down the stairs so she could help him with Hinata. Karin almost tripped over herself and ran down the stairs in a breeze. She examined Hinata by observing the color of her tongue, opened her eyes to see if it was dilating, but found the whites of it covered in blue. "Yikes, it has already advanced to second phase. This is going to be a brain scratcher. I'm not sure if we have enough fel root antidote to counteract the poison." Karin's brows were furrowed in worry.

"I have some here in my pocket." Sasuke dugged out a small bottle of fel root antidote.

Karin's eyerbrows shot up in surprise. "Where the hell you get that?" Karin asked curiously.

"You don't need to know that. Just tell me is it enough?" Sasuke said in a monotone voice.

"Mochiron. (Of course) Give it to me so I can feed it to her." Karin thought that in this condition, the Hyuuga girl might not even be able to drink it, so if she spilled some, and make it look like Hinata couldn't drink it, then the girl would be dead.

Sasuke considered the fact that they didn't have enough antidote so every drop counts. "I'll do the feeding. Give me your portion of the antidote Karin." Sasuke opens his hand so Karin could hand him the antidote. Karin was not about to get on Sasuke's bad side as she had done this morning. Leaving her with no choice, she surrendered over the bottle. Sasuke sat down next to Hinata's body, put some antidote in his mouth and mouth-fed it to Hinata. Then again and again, repeating the antidote feeding process until it was all finished. At the last part, his lips lingered a bit over Hinata's, feeling the moist, soft and smooth lips, like fresh flower petals. Slowly he lifted his head and watched her face, seeing that the colors were returning to her face. Hinata's face had a natural blush, and her dark alluring eye lashes makes her face all the more captivating. How come he had never noticed that? She also had a faint scent of lavender, something that made relaxed and soothed him. His brows came together in anger; he was made at himself for thinking about something like this at such a moment. He tried to straighten his thoughts. "I'll be outside if you need me. And don't try to do anything to her." After telling Karin that, he walked out of the house to the backyard.

Karin bit down on her lip until it bled. _Sasuke Sasuke. Since this is such a burden, why do we still have to retain her? Aren't you worried about the Konoha ninjas finding you? Am I the only one who worries about what is going to happen to us?_ She turned toward Hinata and growled, "You better be careful because when Sasuke's not around, I'll make sure you'll be sorry." Karin got up and left the room.

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Hinata was finding it easier to breathe and her chest had stopped hurting. _Perhaps my suffering has ended because I am with kami-sama_. She felt herself floating upwards but it stopped at a point. _No_._ I'm not flying to kami-sama._ She realized she was being carried by someone, up somewhere. Her cheek felt warm and her mind was at peace because of the steady tempo of a person's heart beat. Evidently the person was warm and strong because she could feel the muscles through his shirt, whereever her cheek was touching. _Perhaps kami-sama is carrying me up to tenkoku now._ She felt some comfortable, she tried to snuggle closer to the warm chest. Hinata thought, she hasn't felt this secure and relaxed before and she felt that she had so much to tell kami-sama, but where to start? _Doesn't matter anymore. At least I know I had died honorably and had tried to help Naruto-kun._ In just a few seconds, she felt her body being placed on something was fluffy and soft. She sighed in content as she breathed in the scent of mountain forest. _Perhaps, with kami-sama, everything will be alright._

The sun was descending and the stars came out and arranged themselves, shining prettily in the dark blue sky. Sasuke was leaning over Hinata, staring into her face and examining her features. He breathed in her scent, and wondered to himself that life wasn't that bad, maybe.

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**Wow. This was the longest chapter I had typed so far. LOL. When I was typing this, I had such romantic feelings in my heart. I'm deciding whether I should make it a tragedy or not, but that's a bit advanced for a newbie like me, so perhaps for my next story. For now, I so excited that there is a bit more development between our couple. **

**For the upcoming two weeks I might have midterms so not sure I'll be able to update soon. Hopefully this will suffice for those two long weeks of waiting. Enjoy!**

**P.S. I'll try to think of something about what happened to Naruto and Neiji. Of course Neiji is not evil.  
**


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimers: The characters do not belong to me but the creator of naruto. All other events that occur in the story are fictional, and should it coincide with any one's life, know that it was done unknowingly and unintentionally. Copyrights are reserved for the plot only. **

**Hello there, **

**It has been awhile since I wrote anything and submitted anything to this website. It was a busy summer considering that my grandma passed away not too long ago, and then my cousins came from overseas to visit my family and me. Also preparations for a new semester had to be done. So sitting in my cozy room, I'm typing the story. I hope you enjoy it. I'm hoping to finish the story soon so hopefully I can make the plot progress faster. **

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Sasuke went walked to his room which was fairly close to Hinata's. He sat down on his bed and began rubbing his arm. Even though Orochimaru had deceased, his venom remains potent. It was seeping into his chakra channels, and was causing a disruption in the flow.

Knowing that Karin is still up he called for her. "Karin, come into my room for a moment. I'm in need of your assistance."

Karin walked in reluctantly. She was still quite angry about what had happened in Hinata's room. She caught a glimpse of Sasuke kissing that Hyuuga girl. Sasuke's heart was not easily moved by anyone, let alone a shy, weak and helpless girl like Hinata. She didn't quite understand what Hinata had that she didn't. Karin thought herself physically appealing. She was more curvaceous that Hinata, she had fair skin like Hinata, though not as pale as her. She also thought her legs were longer than Hinata. Besides the physical attributes, she could be more of assistance to Sasuke. So why did he kiss the Hyuuga girl and not her? But in all honesty, her pride was hurt because she felt that even with her favorable attributes; a pale and worthless girl like Hinata Hyuuga had won the affections of Sasuke. She felt she had to get rid of her, but how? A plan was beginning to foam in the recesses of her mind.

She became alarmed as she looked the huge black swell on Sasuke's arm. She gasped."How did this happen?" she yelled frantically.

"Shh. Lower your voice. I don't want to cause a disturbance." Sasuke said it in a calm voice, but Karin knows he was trying to mask his pain because his eyebrows were furrowed in pain. His forehead gleamed of tiny sweat droplets and his face was turning paler by the minute.

"How did this happen?" Karin asked in a whisper. She sat down on the bed next to Sasuke and began examining the pulsing swell. It seemed like something was growing inside and was getting stronger by the minute.

"I got bit by Orochimaru. It seems his poison detonated that Snake's power in my body. I had defeated it once, but this one is stronger than his seal." He turned toward Karin, "I need you to use a kunai and insert some chakra onto the blade point and cut off the swelling for me. And then I need you to go to the Sand Village to get a special plant for me. It's called Hitasu fern (ice dragon fern). It should be white-blue. You need to bring it back before dawn breaks; otherwise I'll have to amputate my entire arm. Now hurry!"

"Hai Sasuke-kun." She vanished into the deep forest.

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Naruto, Sakura and the others were able to finally obtain reinforcement. Gaara sent his most trusted brother, Kankuro to assist Naruto in fighting Sasuke. He understands Sasuke should not be underestimated and Naruto a person who's versatile enough to face off Sasuke. And who was a better candidate than Kankuro and his puppet abilities.

"Kankuro, I'm counting on you to help Naruto out." He stared into Kankuro's eyes, further conveying his trust towards him.

"Gaara, we'll make sure Kankuro is worked down to the bone and make good use of his abilities. Hahaha..." Naruto was laughing, but inside was he extremely impatient to leave and find Hinata. It would be no surprise if she was captured by Sasuke now. He is one foe that he will never underestimate. He's glad that Gaara chose Kankuro for their team.

"Let's hurry and leave. Time is of the essence" Naruto said. The group set out of the village into the grand desert that lies ahead of them.

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While the group was heading away from the village, Karin had just entered the village. She already located the herbal greenhouse located not too far away from the capital. In front of the greenhouse stood two jounin guards. Karin thought _these should be easy fries to cook._ Concealing her chakra presence from the two jounin guards, she sneaked up behind them and knocked them out. Using one of her special abilities, she locked down the chakra points of guards, enabling her 20 minutes to search for the plant and leave the village before they wake up.

Once she entered the facility, she automatically spotted the plant. It was fairly small, about 3 inches high. It also emitted a strange smell, something similar to bad breath. _So this is supposed to help Sasuke? Oh well better hurry before it turns light outside._ She stuffed the small plant into her pouch rushed out the village.

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The swell on Sasuke's arm was becoming unbearably painful. His breath was quickening and in shorter intervals. He clamped his eyes shut, which helped him bear the pain a bit better. _Where is Karin? What is taking her so long?_ Then he heard a faint rustle coming from the other room. His body stiffened, afraid to catch Hinata's attention. However the rustling stopped after a few seconds. He knew she was asleep and was moving about in her bed. _Please don't wake up and catch me looking like this._

He lied down on his bed and squinted at the ceiling. Suddenly everything around turned dark and he was out cold.

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"Tadaima, chichi, haha, oniichan..." His smiley face expression altered to a wide eye worry look. The house was oddly quiet. Usually his parents would be in the kitchen or the living room, carrying out their chores. But today, no one was in those places.

"Haha, Chihi, Oniichan!" He called out desperately, praying that it was a fluke. When he opened the door to the corridor, he says his parents' blood drenched body on the floor. Itachi stood above the corpses, drenched in blood as well. It sank into Sasuke's mind what had happened, but he would not believe it.

"Oniichan..." he reached out for Itachi. "What happened here?" Tears slid down Sasuke's cheeks and he could hear his breathing becoming more erratic. Itachi stood motionless until Sasuke reached him. Itachi quickly pushed him away and said, " You brat. You think I wanted to play with you. You must be joking. I'm not going to kill because you're not worth it. You're just a pathetic weakling. If you have the guts to seek revenge, come find me. And I'll gladly end your life." Sasuke's knees buckled beneath him. He couldn't believe that his brother was that kind of person. That all this time, his brother has been deceiving him about his true intentions.

The bonds that they formed, was it all fake? His disbelief soon turned to rage. Rage for his for his brother changing everything, changing the world around and destroying his hope of happiness. And rage was the only thing he could turn to, otherwise he would be living in eternal despair.

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Hinata sleep was broken by a faint sorrowful cry from the room next to hers. She was wondering who it was. Surely it couldn't be Sasuke's. He, who seems cold from the outside, couldn't possibly be crying. But as she sat there and listened, the urgency in that voice was increasing gradually. A bit worried, she walked slowly out and stood in front of the door of the room. She peered in and saw Sasuke lying there. His entire body was shaking. Naturally, Hinata walked in and worried over what was happening. She tried to shake Sasuke awake, but it didn't seem to help.

"What should I do?" She touched her hand to his forehead and reflexively pulled back like she was scorched. His body was burning hot. Then she noticed the swelling on his arm. The swell had grown to an enormous size, as big as a football. It was also pulsating quickly. She took her kunai out and jabbed at the ugly looking thing, but it was solid rock. She tried again, focusing some chakra on the blade and tried again. This time she successfully jabbed into. She tried to scoop out whatever that was living inside Sasuke's arm, but something popped out. Staring straight at Hinata's face was Orochimaru's slimy one. His head pushed out of Sasuke's arm and following below him was his long white neck.

"Hiiiiisaaasshiiburiii (Long time no see) Hyuuga-san," Orochimaru hissed through his teeth.

"Don't come any closer or I'll kill you!" Hinata stood in her fighting stance. She quickly tied the kunais to her the strings in her hands, so it was dangling from her sleeves when she was done.

"Tsk tsk, a young person is always itching for a fight." Orochimaru shook his head, and smiled smugly at Hinata. "Butz, you knoww whattzz? Iii'm not going to die firssssttz, you are?" He lunged at Hinata so quickly that she barely had enough time to dodge the attack.

"We'll see about that! Byakugan!" Hinata used her eyes to scan quickly in order to find Orochimaru's weak points. One thing she discovered was Orochimaru body was connected to Sasuke's chakra channel, and his power was flowing from Sasuke. Therefore, in order to defeat him, she would have to completely obliterate Sasuke's arm. _But to a ninja, it's the worst fate possible. To lose your arm is to lose your ability to fight. There must be another way. What if I plugged one of the pressure points to stop the flow of chakra flowing into Orochimaru's body? Would that work? No other but to try and see. _Hinata ducked under one of Orochimaru's advances, and she flew straight to Sasuke's elbow. She punched into the chakra point located in that joint and ceased the flow of energy into Orochimaru's body. It didn't to have any effect on him though.

"Heh... Your plan willll not workkkkzz." Laughing maniacally, Orochimaru long tongue grabbed hold of Hinata's ankle and knocked her onto the floor.

Hinata quickly pulled herself out this disadvantageous position by flipping over with her hand supporting her weight. Concentrating the chakra to her feet, she used her toes to aim at Orochimaru's other chakra points, hoping to close them and cease his actions.

"Ittss no ussssee. Your too weakzz." Orochimaru's head again lunged at Hinata, but this it was toward her heart. Hinata bent backwards, putting herself in a bridge position. She then lifted feet and aimed her toes onto Orochimaru's neck. It connected this time and closed off two chakra points in his neck.

Hissing in pain Orochimaru said "You will pay for this b*****!"

"Not if I can help it. _Jūho Sōshiken"_ Her attack pushed Orochimaru's head back towards Sasuke's arm. In an instant, it also connected with Orochimaru's left eye, rendering him defenseless for a few seconds. "Die!" yelled Hinata and she stabbed her fingers into Orochimaru's head, splitting it open. His body and head dissolves into a thick puddle of white goo. However, the well didn't seem to decrease. At least it wasn't getting bigger.

At that moment, Karin ran into the room. Completely ignoring Hinata's presence, she administered the medication to Sasuke. Immediately the swelling decreased immensely. Pushing Hinata aside, Karin went to grab some bandages, thread and needle for sealing up Sasuke's wound.

After she finished bandaging Sasuke, she turned towards Hinata and faintly whispered "Thank you."

Hinata wasn't too sure how to react to that, so she just smiled at Karin's back.

Sasuke began to stir from his sleep, and he slowly opened his eyes to see Karin and Hinata staring back at him. He definitely felt much better, but he wasn't too sure what happened before he awoke. Even though he didn't show it on his face, he was quite puzzled.

"Hinata saved your life. She battled Orochimaru and killed him it seems. Otherwise you would have been swallowed completely by Orochimaru."Karin informed Sasuke.

Sasuke turned to stare at Hinata, whose cheeks were slightly flushed. He thought surely she's not embarrassed is she? Then there was a tiny voice in his head saying _but she sure looks very pretty in that state._ He wasn't sure what to say to Hinata so he only nodded his head as he continued to stare into her eyes.

A tad flustered, Hinata said "Well I'm tired so I'm going back to my room to sleep. Oyasumi oh! The sun is rising. I mean Ohaiyo...uh... nevermind." She ran out of the room with great speed.

Sasuke felt slightly amused by her reaction. He thought to himself that it was kind of cute.

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Hinata laid her bed turning left and right, thinking nervously to herself, wondering why she felt so weird being under Sasuke's gaze. This had never happened before. Somehow, her perception of him changed a little. She never saw Sasuke in his weak condition before. At the other time, before the fight, he seemed frightened, lonely, and sad. She wondered what happened in his past. Of course she heard about how Uchiha Clan was completely extinguished by Sasuke's brother, Itachi. But later, she heard he avenged his parents, so shouldn't he be happy to a certain extent, knowing that he had accomplished that? There must be something else, she thought, but she couldn't quite pinpoint it. However, after the fight with Orochimaru, she did become tired. After a few more minutes of tossing and turning, she fell into a deep sleep.

Karin fell asleep in the room across the hall. The only person still lying awake was Sasuke. He knew what was happening to him, but didn't want to admit it. Why was he attracted to Hinata, of all people? Knowing that Hinata was asleep, he kind of wanted to cross over to her room and examine her. _Maybe that will help me understand what kind of power she has over me._ Quietly, he crept into Hinata's room, closing the door behind without and creak so to not wake up Karin. Stepping closer to the edge of the bed, he stared down into Hinata's face. The warm seasonal weather was to Sasuke's advantage because Hinata did not put a quilt over herself, thus setting her figure for his eyes' pleasure.

Her face was pale and ethereal. He long sooted lashes gently laid on her cheeks. Her brows arch prettily over her face. Her neck was slender and beautiful arch. Then Sasuke's eyes slid to Hinata's body. She had luscious curves. Her bosoms were slightly bigger than Sasuke's hands, which was fine with him. He saw that she had a narrow waist with a flat tummy and it curves out to her buttocks, creating a perfect hourglass figure. She had long slender legs that he would have liked to touch. Listening to this thought in his head, he smiled inwardly. She looked so innocent and she is of course. Her attraction to Naruto is her only flaw, which he was well aware of. Whether that admiration of him still exists within Hinata, he does not know.

But bringing up the thought about Naruto made him sigh inwardly. _If Hinata is so far out, then Naruto and Sakura must have started their search for him._ He sat down next to the bed and leaned on the side to angle his face closer to Hinata's. Her breathing was slow and even. He touched his thumb to her lips, gently rubbing them and feeling the softness of them. They were so kissable. If only he had recognized what a beauty she has become, he would have made her crazy in love with him. But he was not capable of love back then because he was an avenger. Now, that no longer applies to him. He pushed himself off the floor, ready to leave the room because if Hinata discovers he was peeking at her, she would be on her guard at all times. But before he left, he couldn't help himself but move his head toward her face. There he gently caressed Hinata's lips with his own, breathing in a bit of her sweet breath. After that, he turned and tiptoed out of the room.

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**Well that is the end of one chapter, which I had worked on the whole entire day! So be grateful that I uploaded one full chapter LOL. Don't worry readers, Orochimaru will not appear anymore! Now the only people between Hinata, Sasuke, Naruto, the gang (sakura, lee, etc.) and Hyuuga family (which includes Neji). Next chapter the love will progress even further! Maybe even a all out face off between Naruto, Neji and Sasuke? This is going to be exciting!**

**Thank you for reading my loyal readers!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: All characters that exist in this story do not belong to me but the creator of Naruto. The events in this story are fictional and should not coincide with real life events. However if it does, then please know that it was done intentionally and unknowingly. All copyrights are reserved for this story. Thank and enjoy!**

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The winds were moving violently in the afternoon sun. A sandstorm had hit the desert almost immediately after Neji had set foot in it. He took note of the trails that he assumed to be Naruto's and was impatient to find him for he needed help in freeing Hinata. However with the raging storm blowing and snarling at the cave's threshold, Neji had no other alternative but to sit and wait it out.

Through the thick sand barrier 6 shadows slowly closed in on the cave's entrance. Neji was suddenly on the alert. He activated his byakugan and directed his gaze toward the six dark figures. He saw the people that were moving closer had strong and powerful chakra flows. One in particular seemed oddly familiar. Suddenly he realized that he had found Naruto, or it should be Naruto had found _him_.

"Naruto-kun," said Neji.

"Ee... What are you doing out here Neji?" asked Naruto. He cocked his head slightly to the right, and he furrowed his brows for a few seconds. All of sudden, the answered had seeped into his mind. "I see. So you are here because you were sent to find Hinata right? Dang, the Hyuuga house sure picked up the news quickly. But it is a good thing you are here."

Chouji sat down on the floor and began rummaging his pockets for food. "Gosh I'm hungry. All that sand isn't really good for the stomach." He gobbled the bag of chips in a mere few seconds and was onto his next bag.

Neji stood up so he could be at the same level as Naruto. "Yes, the main house had sent me to protect Hinata. Unfortunately she was taken captive by Sasuke. And I know exactly where he is. I headed in this direction in hope of finding you guys."

"You found Sasuke!" Naruto's eyes widened with glee and surprise. Sakura, who stood beside him, was calm and focused because a lot was on her mind. Even though she was happy that Sasuke's location was found, there were other problems at hand. If Hinata was held hostage, then they need to find a way to ensure her safety. However that would mean the team had to completely incapacitate him because who knows how dangerous Sasuke was.

Naruto impatiently asked, "Where is he now? Take me to him. I'll going to teach him a good lesson for leaving Konoha!" Naruto pounded his fists together and gave one of his really cheezy grins. Excitement pulsated throughout Naruto's entire body, making him eager for movement.

"I'm with you there Naruto-kun. Together we'll bring him back to Konoha!" Lee gave a dazzling smile and a thumbs up to Naruto as a sign of strong agreement. Like Naruto, excitement electrified him because Sasuke was a formidable opponent. Not only that, Sasuke was a nakama (comrade), therefore he should be reunited with the Konoha family.

"Hold your horses people. We can't jump in there without any solid plans. Not unless you want to lose an arm or a leg. And I'm not ready to sacrifice my body parts yet." Shikamaru squatted down on the floor and picked up a piece of rock. "Neji, can you tell how the area around Sasuke's holding looks like?"

Neji squatted down beside Shikamaru and started giving him the estimates on the perimeters and the terrain out of the 50 feet radius. While he was reporting all this information, Shikamaru drew a diagram consisting of 10 circles and the three larger circles. "I see. Naruto you go near the tree behind the house which is approximately 100 feet away, but close enough for you to reinforce the other members should it come to that. Chouji, you stand on this tree 45 degrees east of the house and be ready to attack head front with solid force. Neji, you run into the house to rescue Hinata and Sakura will go with you as back up. In order to distract Sasuke, Kankuro, you will use your puppets and lead him into the open, 60 feet away from the house. Lee, you stay 30 degrees west of the house and join in after 5 minutes into the fight. In those five minutes of fighting I will try to assess Sasuke's abilities as best as I can so we can quickly defeat him. As for me, I will try to sneak up behind Sasuke therefore I will be located 60 degrees east of the house which should be near the back of the house. The longer we keep the fight going, the less chakra we'll have, and that would put us at a great disadvantage. Understood?" He turned his head to look at his team members, and they all replied "Understood!"

"Then let's move out. Ah... what a bothersome task." Shikamaru scratched his head and stood up from his squat position. The storm had died down, as if it was foreshadowing a successful conquest. The seven jounins set out with a strict determination, ready to retrieve Sasuke and Hinata.

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"Iiit-ta-daa-ki-masu" stuttered Hinata. She wasn't quite sure what to make of the meal in front of her. Well she didn't expect they would cook anything for her to eat at all. To her surprise, Karin was skilled in the culinary arts. Right in front of Hinata was a bowl of miso soup. Next to the bowl was mizore beef and donabe (claypot) rice. At the end of her tray was a small dish of pickled radish and pickled ginger. Everything was aromatic and it made her tummy grumble. The sound wasn't loud but it was audible enough for both Karin and Sasuke to hear it. Hinata blushed at her embarrassment.

"Don't worry, just eat it. There's no poison or anything in the food." Karin said, and she was ready to take back the tray. She was unwilling to cook for the Hyuuga girl but Sasuke had asked her so she complied.

"It's not that. How should I say it... Well I thought I was a captive and this kind of treatment is beyond the kind of treatment that you would give to a prisoner." Hinata bit her lightly bit her lip as if she said something weird.

_Very observant Hinata, _thought Sasuke. But in his dull tone he said "Just eat it."

"Hai." She dipped her head a bit, and picked up her chopsticks. The meal was delicious and by the time she finished devouring her meal, she was stuffed to the brim. "Gochisousama. It was delicious."

"Well, glad to satisfy your appetite." Karin meant to be sarcastic but wasn't sure if Hinata caught on to it. She took the tray and bowls to the kitchen and began washing them. In her mind, she was trying create the perfect opportunity to enact her evil scheme.

When clean up was done, she walked out to the room where Hinata was sitting in. Sasuke had went outside, doing something that even she does not know about. Hinata was practically defenseless without Sasuke here to protect her. She smiled at Hinata and asked, "Do you want to go for a walk outside? It is very beautiful."

Hinata replied warily, "I thought I was suppose to be a prisoner. Shouldn't you keep me from leaving this place?"

Karin thought to herself that this girl was a sharp one. Karin kept her smile on, and said in a friendly tone, "Well I'm sure you're a good girl that wouldn't run away. Plus we owe you a great deal, especially me because you saved Sasuke. Our team was nearly extinguished, leaving only Sasuke and me. I am glad that you were to help out. Otherwise, who knows what could have happened, right?"

"I guess." Hinata wasn't too sure what to believe in. After all she was often told that she owned a gentle heart, and because of her naivete and kindness she was often perceived as weak and foolish. She wanted to believe that Karin was doing this out of goodwill, but it could be her kindness blinding her. However it was hard to believe that Karin would have anything against her, so it should be safe to go out with her. "Alright."

In order to fake her cheerfulness, Karin clapped her hands together and chirped, "Good! Hurry now, we don't want to miss the good weather." Karin nudged Hinata till they exited the house. "Now should we stretch our body with a little race?" Karin had to get Hinata as far away from the house as possible.

"I thought we were going for a walk." Hinata was starting to a bit suspicious of Karin because she kept changing the plans. She felt Karin was up to something. In order for her to find out, she needed to go along with Karin's suggestions. "Sure, why not."

They both went flying through the forest with amazing speed and stealth. Each step they took were as light as feathers.

Karin turned around and looked towards the direction of house. The building was getting smaller and smaller and soon it was too far to be seen from their location. With Karin increasing her speed, Hinata quickened her footwork to match Karin's. They were of an equal match. Karin didn't really care about that, what she was more concerned of was that they get far away from the house so that Sasuke would be too late to catch up.

The run continued for another 15 kilometers.

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"Neji, about how much longer will it take for us to get there?" Naruto asked anxiously.

"About 25 more kilometers. We should get there by nightfall." Neji answered steadily.

"Gosh Naruto. Just be patient a bit longer. We're almost there." Shikamaru whined at Naruto. He knew that Naruto was quick-tempered, but it was becoming irritable for him having to assure him that they will be there soon.

"Urgghh... You guys are too slow! I'm going on ahead without you." Naruto speeded up and soon bypassed everyone.  
"Naruto-kun!" Sakura shouted. "Mou... Naruto-kun, why the hell can't you just wait up!" Even though Sakura was very eager to see Sasuke but this was causing a bit of an inconvenience for every one. Since they had set out as a group, they should stick and work together as a group. _What would Tsunade-sama say?_

"Wait for me Naruto-kun!" Lee went spreeing in front of every one else, in hot pursuit of Naruto's heels.

"Having them two on the team sure is a handful." Shikamaru only shook his head at this. He couldn't begin to fathom what would happen if they met Sasuke. Things will be very confusing. He was hoping that Naruto and Lee can at least stay calm enough for all them to carry out the plan. And since they had Neji's byakugan and Kankuro's puppets, things should go well, or so he thinks.

Their journey continued.

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Sasuke was staring at the waterfalls. He had a instinctual premonition that Naruto and a group of familiar faces will show up anytime soon. He does not care if they come to capture him or not because he's not afraid. Fear has no effect on Sasuke who had long forgotten it. However, if he were to fight them, he will at least be prepared. Thinking about the Konoha village made his blood boil because they were the ones that ordered his beloved brother to assassinate the entire Uchiha clan. The only one that remained alive was him and Itachi. Due to some sort of confusion, he was unhappily deceived that he was brother turned on the village. When in fact his brother had loved the village much that he turned against his own family and friends. However, experiencing many changes during the five years after Konoha's invasion, he had learned that defeating the Konoha village may be near impossible especially with his team gone. Vindication was purely a dream.

The birds serenade echoed through forest, singing their last songs for the day while the orange sun began to set behind the hills. Sasuke, taking note of the time, decided it was time to return to the house. He plunged through the forest with amazing grace, and when he was 30 feet away from the house, he halted in step. The area around his house was oddly quiet. He hid behind a thick tree trunk and scanned the area for any suspicious person.

"Nikudan Sensha!" All of the sudden a large object rolls toward him. Sasuke jumps up to dodge it, but encounters Lee's kick from the air.

"Hisashiburi desu Sasuke-kun," Lee greeted and gave Sasuke another kick in the air. Sasuke easily countered with an arm block and punches in Lee's direction. Before his fist could reach Lee's stomach, Lee catches it with his grip and tries to flip Sasuke mid-air. "You have gotten much stronger Sasuke-kun. Seems I can't hold back today." Jumping at each other, they started punching and kicking each other. The moves were difficult to catch because their movements were like flash of lightnings. Even Neji had a bit of trouble seeing them clearly.

Chouji continued to assault Sasuke while he was fighting with Lee. As that happened, Shikamaru stood in the trees to examine Sasuke's tactics and possibly hidden abilities. Based on what he saw so far, Sasuke was a formidable opponent. _But it must be done, _he thought to himself. The night was infiltrating the sky at a slow pace, and the floor was darkening with shadows. Shikamaru was waiting for night time to come so his abilities could be placed in advantage.

The fight was turning to Sasuke's favor, pushing both Chouji and Lee into defensive mode. As the fight dragged on, Sasuke grew more and more impatient. Rage was simmering in the back of his mind. Without warning, he flashed in front of Chouji and Lee and knocked on the back of their head. Both Lee and Chouji fell forward from the impact, but were not knocked unconcious. Lee was temporarily defenseless and Sasuke took this as a chance and charged at him with alarming speed. Right before he could use his chidori at Lee, Kankuro's Sashouo (a salamander puppet) absorbed his attack. The puppet was improved with metallic plating that helped absorbed the powerful and vicious blow. Sasuke immediately jumped back, but another puppet cloaked in a robe flew at Sasuke. Sasuke pushed himself off the floor into the air to dodge the puppet and was struck by the puppet's needles.

Meanwhile, Sakura and Neji were in the house, checking every nook and corner for signs of Hinata. Unfortunately, they were unable to find anything.

"Where could she be?" Neji was perplexed by the situation. Surely Sasuke would not have thought of them being here and attacking at this moment. He did not seem expectant. Then where could Hinata have gone?

Outside the house, the fight became increasingly intense. Due to Sasuke's sharingan's ability, he was copying every move Lee was doing. With the speed of his eyes, Sasuke easily avoided most of Chouji's and Kankuro's attacks combined. Shikamaru assessed the situation and had no other choice but to change his plans. He stood behind the bush and activated his shadow technique. Since it became night, Sasuke would not be able to see his shadow reach for him.

Sasuke's body froze in place."Damn it!" Sasuke tried to free Shikamaru's hold on but his efforts remained fruitless. Shikamaru came out of bushes and said "Sasuke, you have two choices. It's either you die here, or you return with his to Konoha."

"Don't speak so soon,"Sasuke retorted. His eyes opened a bit wider, putting his genjitsu into effect. Every one's body became paralyzed, except for Naruto. Unable to hold himself back anymore, Naruto jumps out of trees. "Rasengan!" He holds the chakra orb in his right hand and aims it at Sasuke's back. Sasuke quickly turned his eyes on Naruto, putting him under the same genjitsu as the others. Naruto disrupted his own chakra, breaking himself free of the illusions.

"I see you've grown stronger Naruto. But not strong enough!" Sasuke ran toward Naruto, and quickly unsheathing his katana, he aims it at Naruto's back. As soon as Sasuke did that, Naruto disappeared into a puff of smoke. "Those goddamn kage bunshin."

"Rasenshuriken!" Overhead, three Narutos flies toward Sasuke with one of them holding the rasenshuriken. He then throws it at Sasuke, who automatically attempts to dodge the attack. However the force of attack caused a great explosion, scalding Sasuke's arm. Sakura and Neji joins the fight. At this point, Sasuke saw how disadvantaged he was and decided to retreat. He needed to find Karin and Hinata. "I'll get you guys, but not now."

Sasuke fell back into the trees and began running. Naruto and the others were not going to allow him to escape so they followed him closely.

"Shit," Sasuke cursed under his breath. Trying to distract his opponents, he throws a couple of kunai at them. He also threw a couple of smoke bombs to hide his trail.

By the time Naruto, Sakura and Neji passed through the cloud of smoke, Sasuke was gone.

"Can't believe we lost him." Naruto punched the tree trunk angrily. They were so close to capturing him but they allowed him to escape.

"Don't worry Naruto, he can't be far. And considering his wounds, he'll be in great pain. We'll keep looking." Sakura said that in an attempt to soothe Naruto's frustration. Even though she was disappointed that Sasuke escaped, she wasn't going to allow her emotions get the best of her. More importantly, they should regroup with the others, who were trapped in the genjitsu."Let's go back to the others."

And off they went toward the direction of the house.

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"Karin-san, this is more than a race. We've been going at it for at least an hour now." Hinata asked nervously.

"Die!" Karin tried to karate chop Hinata. Hinata's reflexively jumped to her right side. Losing no time, Karin then side kicked Hinata on the side of her waist. Hinata fell harshly against the tree trunk. Hinata gets up slowly from the floor, and charges at Karin. "Byakugan!"

Karin was gaining strength in every second. She used one of her special abilities to increase her chakra supply, which means she was going to try to prolong the fight. Karin made a seal with her hands and shouted "Senshinshi!" Thousands of threads blew out of her body and reached for Hinata. The threads were so fast that Hinata did not have enough time to react and got caught in the trap. Thousands of needle like thread stuck onto her body. Hinata screamed in pain.

"Hahahaha. How do you like it? I won't let you get away this easy. With you out of the way, Sasuke will only have eyes for me!" Karin did another incantation, "Burning needle attack." Thorn-sized needles covered in fire came out of Karin's mouth. Hinata tried her best to escape the attack. Even though she managed to release herself from the painful needles, the other attack still got hit her on her left shoulder. The searing technique burnt Hinata's shoulder. "You'll regret ever laying your hands on my man!" Karin was ready to end Hinata's life with her final technique. Then, very abruptly, Karin was thrown into a genjitsu. She should have known that Sasuke would come to Hinata's rescue, but at the expense of a team mate was more than Karin could take. She started yelling angrily "Sasuke, why? Why the hell are you protecting this girl? I'm the one who helped you for so long! I was the one there for you when you were lonely! How dare you betray me! Ho dare you!!!"

Sasuke dropped down next to Hinata and lifts her into a princess hold. "Sasuke-kun," Hinata said weakily. The scald on her shoulder was excruciatingly painful and it was affecting her thinking.

Without a word, Sasuke, while holding Hinata, went traveling into the trees. In Sasuke's mind, he was relieved he made it in time to save Hinata. If it wasn't for Naruto and them, he would have arrived here earlier and prevented all this from happening. Looking down at Hinata, who fell unconscious, he inwardly sighed of relief. _The house is no longer safe. I have to find some place where we can both heal up our wounds._

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"Ah... you are finally awake! And I thought you were going to continue to sleep," an old woman laughed.

"Where is this place?" Sasuke's head was pounding. At least his leg healed up quite bit after the long fight with Naruto. "How long have I been asleep?"

"Well..." the old lady pretended to think, "for three days now. Hahaha. Young people nowadays have to really sleep because they fool around too much." She wagged her finger at Sasuke and laughed.

Sasuke shook his head to clear the pain and regain some sense. Then he realized he was completely naked under the sheets. "What the hell did you do with my clothes?"

"A-re a-re. Pissed off so early in the morning? No wonder your wife was beat up so badly. You must be a very abusive person," said the old lady, who tried to fake a serious tone. But seeing Sasuke's distraught expression made her become honest with him. "Your clothes were dirty and covered in blood so I had to wash and repair it, if it is alright with you."

"Where is the girl?" Sasuke asked. He was genuinely concerned about Hinata. Was she alright? How are her wounds now? He kept repeating the question to himself.

"She's in the next room. Her burn was pretty bad I must say. It might leave a scar for life. What a shame too because her skin was so fair." The old woman chuckled, "Ah... when I was younger I also had beautiful skin and a nice figure like your woman there."

"She's not mine," Sasuke grunted.

"Whatever you say," the old said jokingly. She wagged her finger at Sasuke and winked at him. Afterwards she left him to his own thoughts.

"Maybe I should go see how Hinata is now." Sasuke told himself this as some sort of reassurance. He stood up and wrapped the sheet around him. At least this was half decent. Better going in half dressed than fully naked. He walked to Hinata's door and gave a knock.

"Who is it?" The response was a weak one.

"May I come in?" Sasuke asked.

"Not... ready yet." Hinata was not sure how she should receive Sasuke. Her clothes were unfortunately burned and torn in places, making it beyond repair. The old lady told her that she didn't own any clothes of her size, so right now Hinata only had a quilt to cover herself.

"What do you mean you're not ready?" Sasuke asked impatiently. There must be something wrong. Without thinking, he opened the door, and was surprised in seeing Hinata sitting up in bed. She quickly pulled the quilt to cover her chest but it was already too late. The both blushed profusely. "Sorry," Sasuke said. He quickly turned around, walked outside and closed the door behind him. At that moment, the old lady passed by and winked at Sasuke. He wasn't sure what to make of it but it seems that the old lady had already mistaken Hinata and himself being lovers. _Ai... this is getting more complicated by the second._

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**Thought I would skip the formalities for this chapter. Sorry for the long fighting sequences. I thought I needed a reason for bringing Sasuke and Hinata closer and what could be better than spending some quality together with a funny old lady to be their match maker right? ^^ The next chapter will get a little more saucy so be ready! **


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimers: All characters that exist in this story do not belong to me but the creator of Naruto aka Masashi Kishimoto. The events in this story are fictional and should not coincide with real life events. However if they do, then please know that it was done intentionally and unknowingly. All copyrights are reserved for this story. Thank you and enjoy!**

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"Hey! You youngsters! You better get down here or your breakfast will get cold," the old lady bellowed. _Finally some excitement in this dreary old house. Ah... how long has it been since... _Lost in her own thoughts that she missed Sasuke's and Hinata's deep red faces.

The two people sat across from each other, trying their best to avoid eye contact. Sasuke peeked at Hinata with his peripherals but couldn't see much so her turned his slightly. Instead of gazing her down turned face, they both caught each other sneaking a peek at the other.

"Umm... Sass-su-u-ke-kun, ano, about this morning..." Hinata tried to push herself to say it but Sasuke beat her to it.

"About the this morning, let's forget about it," Sasuke said in a serious tone. "It was my fault to have intruded upon your privacy. It will not occur again, so don't worry yourself."

"A-re a-re." The old lady chuckled, and said "It's alright to show some skin to each other. You guys are young and filled to the brim with hot boiling blood. I mean I was once young, so I know how hormones work, ya know. Hahahaha..." The old lady was finding this all too interesting, and just couldn't resist teasing these two a bit. It was all too obvious that these two had some sort attraction for the other, but they would not come out and say it. Though it's going to take a lot of work, she's willing to commit to it. "Why, you youngsters have no appetite? You know, I put a lot of effort into making it! I woke this morning before sunrise to get the vegetables from my garden and I had to catch some fish. The rice had to be washed and put into the put for cooking. And I--" She was cut off abruptly when the Hinata and Sasuke put the bowls to their mouths and began pouring the soup down their throats. The old lady was shocked and stood still for a several seconds. She was even more shocked when the two handed their bowls to her asking for more.

"Gochisousama." Hinata and Sasuke clapped their hands together with their heads slightly bent down to show their gratefulness.

"Oh no!" The old lady exclaimed and smacked her forehead. "I forgot entirely about fixing your shirt youngster." She looked toward Sasuke.

"Well what the hell do you propose about outer wear then? Am I to live with only a towel from now on?" Sasuke said in disbelief. He looked over in Hinata, who was blushing profusely. Like him, she was wrapped in a quilt, but at least she looked attractive in it. Sasuke thought to himself he wouldn't mind following her with his eyes all day. He wanted certain desires to be kept secret and well... the towel would never conceal it. Hinata was very observant, so she might notice something she's not suppose to. "Damn it." Sasuke cursed under his breath.

"Such bad language. Tsk tsk." Her eyebrows shot up and her grin widened even more than before. "I see,"pretending to have reach a revelation. "You were having dirty thoughts. Just like I said, your hormones are going haywire." She turned toward Hinata, scrunching up her features to create a serious face. However it looked more comical than grave. She went over to Hinata and pretended to whisper into her ear, saying "You better watch out for him." She pointed a finger towards Sasuke. "He might force himself on you. Men are just uncontrollable things, especially when they are in heat."Hinata face became a maroon colored, showing her discomfort with the subject. Sasuke couldn't help himself from blurting, "I would never think of you that way. And don't listen to that hag, because she's telling you lies!"

Hinata couldn't help but feel a little hurt. However, she should have known because she and Sasuke had lived together only for a few days. Her head was turned down in contemplation.

In order to break the tension, the old lady tried to cheer them up. "You know what, for tonight's dinner, we're having sukiyaki! If you want to eat some, you'll need to help out with the chores. You there young boy, go wash the floors and make sure it sparkles by the time I come back. You, young girl, I believe your name is Hinata." She smiled at Hinata and said in a less harsh tone, "You go wash the clothes and the dishes. I'm going to go to the market and buy some food, so before I come back I expect everything to be done." She winked at Hinata and Sasuke, took her basket from the kitchen and went out. "Ittekimasu."

Sasuke went immediately to work as well as Hinata. They kept themselves busy while the old lady was out, making every little attempt to avoid each other. Even when Sasuke was washing the floors and Hinata was doing the dishes, he would avoid that place until she was completely finished with her task. Therefore for the whole entire day, they had not spoken one word to the other.

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"Fujii-obaasama, we have fresh and delicious produce today. Since you're a loyal customer, I'll give you a good price for me carrots." The vendor was waving his big, orange carrots at the old lady.

"Carrots can't stir love like mushrooms can. Give me some shiitake mushrooms. I'll also be taking this cabbage and a few apples." The old lady started picking out the things she wanted and gave it to the vendor to weigh.

"Come again! Next time I'll save you some good bananas. Obaasan, take care of yourself!" shouted the vendor.

The old lady wanted to make the two closer, but that means intimacy between the two is required. Considering the ways they acted, it'll take an eternity for them to come together. This meant, underhanded tactics were required for success. Her plan was to get them drunk; drunk enough for Hinata and Sasuke to allow their feelings to overwhelm each other. _Well time to go get some of that strong rice wine. They won't even know what hit them._ She went to the sake vendor and bought 1 gallon of alcohol. The vendor got a little concerned so he asked, "Obaasama, do you know what you are doing?"

She answered confidently, "I know _exactly_ what I am doing."

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"Itai! Sakura-san, can you be a bit more gentle with my wounds?" Lee's expression was painful. Sakura was bounding them all up and healing them with her jitsus.

"Unfortunately I can't because it requires force to properly bound up your wounds. If you want an infection then, by all means, do it yourself." Sakura was merciless when it came to healing her patient.

"Heartless woman," Shikamaru scoffed.

"What did you say?" Sakura's eyes were flaming with rage. "Who the hell do you think is healing up your wounds huh!?"

"Okay okay, I get it. Jeez, no need to get so angry or you'll grow old faster." Shikamaru said nonchalantly.

Neji put a hand on Sakura's shoulder and said, "Right now is not the time to fight amongst over selves, considering the fact it's such a trivial matter. We need to come up with a strategy to defeat Sasuke and rescue Hinata."

Naruto agreed with a nod of his head.

"First, we need to find someone who can help us with tracking people. We will need to return to village to acquire another personnel with such expertise."Shikamaru state.

"Kiba," Naruto breathed.

Hiding not too far away was Karin. She eavesdropped on their conversation, and decided that the Konoha ninjas could be of some use.

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"There you go! You know how much trouble it took me to find that yukata? You should be honored wearing the clothes I wore when I was younger. Afterall I had a pretty good figure back then. Not only that, it was because of this robe that I was able to seduce me a husband." The old lady cackled at her own wit and humour.

Hinata felt ashamed to be dressed in such a revealing yukata. The robe was a bit opened on the top, showing some unintended cleavage. Worst of all, the sash tied around her waist was not tight enough, therefore whenever she bent down or tilted her body forward, there was a risk of showing more cleavage. Not only that, the sides of her unconventional yukata were split open, revealing her smooth and shapely legs. In an attempt to not show more legs than she should, Hinata tried to use her hands to hold the openings closed. "Ummm... obaasan, you don't have any other clothing that I could borrow?" Hinata asked worriedly.

"You ungrateful girl---" the old lady exclaimed.

"It's not that. Ano... don't you think there are places that should not be seen as much?" Hinata was so worried that Sasuke would think she's trying hard to get his attention. She didn't want to dress like this after his exclamation this afternoon. They had been avoiding each other since then, but due to the fact that there is only one dining room, she couldn't go somewhere else to eat. Hinata sighed to herself.

"You have it all, so just flaunt it. Hahahaha...!" The old lady bumped Hinata on the side with her hip, and gave her a wink. _Plan A strategy one has begun. Ooooooh, this is so much fun!_ The old lady clears her throat and said "Well since you are ready, let's go to the dining room and eat. I'm starving and we don't want to let the food get cold right?"

The jolly old lady pranced down the narrow hallway, followed closely by Hinata, who had her head ducked down. She was dying of embarrassment because of her yukata and her face was beet red. She didn't notice that the old lady had stopped in front of her and she accidentally bumped into her. "Ah! Sumimasen."

"Stop minding about it so much. The yukata that I lend you may be the key to your happiness, ya know." She grinned and Hinata. This was not reassuring to Hinata because there was no way Sasuke was going to feel any more attracted to her than this morning. And considering the scathing words that he blurted and her, she needed no evidence to prove otherwise.

In the meantime, Sasuke was facing a self-created dilemma. He was wondering whether he should tell Hinata to forget about what he said this morning or just to let it. Most undoubtedly, he didn't want Hinata to know his true feelings, and it's unlikely for him to tell her. He felt that this attraction would only be some sort of hindrance to his life. Afterall, if he admitted to liking Hinata, that meant he would have to return to Konoha. He didn't really want to face the people that he disliked the most, with the exception of Hinata. As he became lost in his own thoughts, the old lady and Hinata entered the room. As he looked at them, the size of his eyes gradually increased in size.

The old lady took note of this with great pleasure. She knew that her plan would go swell. As she looked at Sasuke's continued wide-eye focus on Hinata, she knew step 2 of her plan would go smoothly as well. "Yosh! People be grateful that I gotten us good food and good sake. If you youngsters don't drink up and eat up tonight, I would consider that disrespect towards me!"

"You old hag, who would want to respect you, making us work like cows." Sasuke muttered under his breath.

"What you are you saying? Hmmm?" The old lady glared at him. She heard what he said, but she knew this wasn't the time to ruin her plan.

"Itadakimasu." All three of them said in unison.

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"I can't drink anymore obaasan. My head is spinning." Hinata pleaded in her weak voice. During dinner the old lady kept pouring sake into her cup. Even though she tried to refuse, she couldn't and ended up drinking several cups of sake.

"You *hiccup* should stop *hiccup* forcing her to drink *hiccup*" Sasuke was nearing the point of being wasted. He was trying to maintain consciousness but it didn't seem to happen. The old lady had given him bowls, not cups, of sake. As he laid his head down on the table, he couldn't help himself from looking at Hinata. With his eyes half-closed, he saw his goddess lying across from him. Due to the fact that her body was a bit bent over, her yukata revealed than it should have, allowing Sasuke the chance to scan her body with undisguised pleasure. He physically yearned for her, and she was so close to him.

The old lady saw how Sasuke eyes lusted for Hinata. _I guess it's time I head out and leave them alone... for a bit. _She giggled to herself and walked out of the room, closing the door behind her.

"Hinata..." Sasuke pulled himself an few inches closer to Hinata, afraid that she might not be able to hear what he says to her. "You know, this morning... this morning what I said to you, about how I would never think you are attractive, *hiccup* well, those words are lies."

"Sa-suke-kun..." Hinata responded weakly. She could hear what he was saying, but the alcohol had slowed down her processing time.

"Shhh...." Sasuke put his index finger on Hinata's lips to stop her from interrupting him. "I have to tell you this. I like you. I don't know how, but I think it was *hiccup* from the time when we were fighting, I found you very gutsy. Your moves were *hiccup* splendid, and there was your innocence." Sasuke shuffled close enough to Hinata that he was breathing in her scent. "You have an intoxicating effect on Hinata."

"You're... ly-ing." Hinata whispered. Her body was deeply affected by the alcohol and she couldn't move that much. But with Sasuke so close to her, she felt her skin burning a bit. Was it from embarrassment? No, unconsciously, she was also yearning for his touch and warmth.

Sasuke chuckled and said, "Well, *hiccup* I can show you." Sasuke ebbed his face closer to Hinata's and captured her lips with his. Hinata was shocked for a few seconds there so she didn't know how to respond.

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**Hello there everyone! As you can see the story is treading into some inappropriate content for teens, so I'm here asking your opinion, would you like me to continue to describe their sexy moments or would you like me to maintain a pure and innocent plot. I mean of course they will do it, but it's a matter of whether you want me to describe the process or not. If you would like to me to describe in the detail of what they are about to do, then I will have to change the rating to mature. However if you don't want me to do that then I will just skip over it and go to the next morning. Please leave your responses so I may decide what to do for the next chapter. ^^**


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimers: All characters that exist in this story do not originate from me but the creater of Naruto, Masashi Kishimoto. The events in this story are fictional and should coincide with real life events. However, if they do, then please know that it was done unintentionally and unknowingly. All copyrights are reserved for this story. Thank you and enjoy!**

**Since many of you expressed your wishes for sexy scenes, I obliged you all!**

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_Recounting the events from the previous chapter:_

Sasuke chuckled and said, "Well, *hiccup* I can show you." Sasuke ebbed his face closer to Hinata's and captured her lips with his. Hinata was shocked for a few seconds because she didn't know how to respond. Her lips remained still, unsure as to what was the next step to this intimate ritual. Sasuke, who detected Hinata's uncertainty, moved his lips slowly over her lips, massaging them, and coaxing them to open. This gentleness shook Hinata and weakened her defenses for his assault.

As the tide of their sexual tension was leading to its climax, Hinata fell asleep on him. She was not used to consuming this much alcohol, thus tiring her body out. Sasuke was left there staring at Hinata's flushed face. It didn't help, considering the fact that he needed to control himself for launching an all attack on Hinata, even if she was sleeping. Sasuke sighed inwardly, and laid Hinata on the floor.

It was the middle of the month and moon shone brightly in the midst of a starry sky. He was suddenly recalled something most unhappy from his past. The death of Itachi...

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"Ugh..." Sasuke slumped against a pile of debris left from his intense fight against Itachi.

"Khack," coughed Itachi who was running out of breath. His gaze never wavered from Sasuke's location.

Sasuke felt so weak that he wasn't even able to stand up.

"Your eyes are mine now," Itachi said and slowly walks towards Sasuke's direction. Sasuke's tries to attack with explosive kunai's, but fails because Itachi was covered by some sort of shield. As Itachi edged closer toward Sasuke, he tries to back away, but encounters a wall. Having no where to run, Sasuke was momentarily terrified of losing his eyes to Itachi. Itachi was only inches away now, and points his fingers toward Sasuke's face. Instead of taking his eyes out, Itachi pokes Sasuke in the head. Itachi spouted blood, and fell down on the floor. *Thump* the body drops to the ground and the sound echoed in Sasuke's ears. He had won... yet he was not entirely happy.

Then he hears Madara's voice repetitively saying, "Itachi loved you, that's why you're still alive. Itachi loved you, that's why you're still alive."

The hatred that he had tried to suppressed for a long time, inflamed his inward being. He hated the fact that his brother loved the village more than his family. He hated the fact that his brother did not kill but led him to do the deed instead. But on top of it all, he hated the village, Konoha. He wanted to kill every single person in it. He vow to never return, and if he ever sees the Konoha ninjas, he'll kill them.

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Sasuke pulled his fingers through his hair as a sign of frustration and internal turmoil. He turned toward Hinata's sleeping face, her docile expression was internally killing him. He was torn by hatred and perhaps... love? He wasn't too sure whether love could exist between him and another human being, but he thought at this moment it was possible. He walked over and sat down next to her. Caressing her smooth pale skin, he loathed himself on not being able to make up his mind as to what he really desired. Conflicting emotions were like tidal waves, crashing over and over again in his heart. While his internal struggle continued, his caress never ceased and gained a favorable response from the recipient. Hinata, stirring a little, turned her lips toward Sasuke's hands, in turn, giving them something similar to a gentle kiss. Her warm breath sent shivers down Sasuke's arm and toward his spine. He lightly brushed his thumb over her lips and obtained another favorable response. This time the shivers traveled to his lower half. He wasn't sure if he could hold that much longer because it was killing him. He just sat in that position until morning.

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The door to the living room slid open, and the old lady quietly slid into the room to get a quick peek of Hinata and Sasuke. Sasuke sat on the floor next to Hinata and his head was slightly drooping. She walked over and stood in front of Sasuke, hoping to get a glimpse of his facial expression. Of course, his expression was completely unexpected. Sasuke had the face of a statue, frozen in place and emotionless. Hinata's clothes maintained its form from yesterday, which meant they not removed at all._ Damn it, Sasuke you idiot! And after what I did to arrange this affair. Are you really a man? Gosh I wouldn't be surprised if you were one. A man would have the guts to take advantage of the delectable meal that is set right in front of you!_ The old lady was so furious that she smacked her own head out of impatience. She stomped back to the kitchen so she can prepare breakfast. With great displeasure, she began her daily chores.

Meanwhile, Hinata was beginning to wake up from her deep sleep. She slowly raised herself off the floor with her elbow. Her head was pounding from the overconsumption of alcohol, and was suffering from a hangover. "Ugh... my head." All of a sudden, visions from the night before reminded her of what a precarious position she was in, especially with Sasuke staring right at her chest!

Sasuke was merely being amused by Hinata's innocent response to his stare. But she was a sight to behold, and from her awakening, there was a iridescent glow about her that strengthens his desire. His lust cannot be easily dissipated without a good tumble on the bed, but based on the fact that Hinata was a virgin, he had to hold back. The wolf was retreat to the cave, so the sheep can come near it. He smirked at that thought.

Hinata was not too sure what to make of all this, but she had to get herself out of this position. So she got up onto her two wobbly legs and walked out of the room. Sasuke just stayed situated in his place, burning Hinata's back with his gaze.

What a spectacle to be seen! Yet the old lady was not there to observe it.

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"Gosh you guys are just troublesome you know that! I just returned from my other assignment and you already want me out there with you!" Kiba was exasperated because in completing a C- rank mission, he was thoroughly exhausted. And now Hokage wanted him to go out on another mission, well that won't happen until he's got his full rest.

"You know, Kiba, I never knew you were that lazy." Naruto lengthen his enunciation on the word "that." "Don't you care about your team member Hinata. You and her used to be disciplined under the same sensei, which means you should be at least a bit more caring!" Naruto stated.

"Hinata can take care of herself. I have faith in her and remember, she's not the Hinata that she used to be. And why do you care so much about her?! Weren't you the one that rejected her in the first place." Kiba's words stung like acid, because it was true that he rejected Hinata's affections because he never saw her in that way. Plus his mind was occupied about thoughts on how to return Sasuke to his rightful place.

"Kiba, kore ha meirei desu yo! (this is an order!)" Tsunade-sama was getting tired of hearing their rantings. She needed to know that they had secured Sasuke's whereabouts so he can brought as soon as possible. He had already spoke with the elders of the village, and they had all refused to renounce Sasuke's punishment, but he is brought back to the village and is willing to undergo rehabilitation, as well as doing missions with higher ANBU's supervision, that they might levied it a bit. However, the record of Sasuke's alliance with the Akatsuki and leaving the village will forever mar his reputation. Tsunade-sama is happy that at least Sasuke's punishment wasn't as severe as it could have been. It took some hard negotiations and persuasions with the elders in order to attain this. Perhaps it wasn't only that reason that the elders were easily swayed was because of their own guilt in having caused the circumstances. Have they found a better to appease the Uchiha clan, there would not have been the destruction of Konoha and the death of some ninjas.

"That is right, Kiba-kun. You can't just watch your comrade being captured and not do anything about it." Sakura agreed.

"Then what do you propose about my tired state?" Kiba looked at Tsunade-sama.

"You get 3 hours of sleep, but you must be off by then because the sun will set soon after you precede into the forest." Tsunade-sama was not going to let Kiba off the hook that easily.

"Alright. I got it." Kiba whined. Then he muttered under his breath, "Gosh you guys are troublesome." Kiba, then jumps off to his lair for a good rest.

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Karin stares intently at the entrance of the Konoha village, waiting for the group of ninjas to make their move. In order to discover Sasuke's whereabouts, she needed the ninja's assistance. _Sasuke that bastard, you betrayed me and I'm going to get my revenge._ Without knowing it, Karin was biting so hard that her lips started bleeding. The tidal wave of rage that overflowed her innards could not be pacified that easily. There was that old saying that the flip side of love is hate, and hate saturated her heart.

Finally the large wooden gates were slowly opened. Out came the group but with an extra member. The new addition looks a bit primitive with his tiny fangs and right beside him as dog. Surely this person was from the Inuzuki.

While Karin studied the group and assessing their chakra level, Kiba stopped mid-step and sniffed the air. He spoke in a soft voice, "The air smells different. There is someone in the tree." He shouted, "Whoever you are, you better come out because I know where you are. And it's not going to be pretty if I have you pull you out myself."

Karin slid down from her hideout, surprised that this Inuzuki user can detect her presence easily. "Hmmph, don't be so full of yourself." He wasn't going to let him get in her way.

"What is it that you want?" Kiba asked.

"Aren't you..."there was a short pause in Naruto's words. He was trying to wrack his brain for the name he heard so long ago. He recollected something about her and Sasuke... "You're Karin right?"

"My, my. I feel honored that you remembered me, the vessel of the nine-tailed beast. I heard things about you from Sasuke. He said you were weak and pathetic. Well I guess I'll have to see whether his testimony is correct." Karin took out her kunai and slid it across of her tongue. The sensation of the cool blood made her blood boil. Her hatred had rose up to a new level and she really wanted to kill these people... the Konoha ninjas, which was what Hinata was. Her eyes were suddenly focused on Neji because his eyes resembled that of Hinata's. "You'll be my first victim!" She lunged forward at Neji who had was quite surprised by her agile movements.

Preparing himself, he chanted "Hakke Hasangeki!" Neji directed his attack towards Karin, but she easily dodged it. "Hakke Rokujuyon Sho!" Karin was only a few feet away from him that he could not continue with the far-reaching attacks. He spun in circles as his palms striked at Karin. The defense was perfect.

Karin attempted to strike from above but even that didn't work. "Hmmph, not bad." Karin did some sort of jutsu that allowed her to blend into her surroundings. Kiba's keen sense of smell helped him find where Karin was standing. He pointed at the spot towards his right, "She's right there, get her before she runs!"

Neji charged toward the spot where Kiba had pointed at, and released his palm toward Karin's center. Even though Neji was quick, Karin was even quicker. After all, Orochimaru would not have chosen her if she was not the best of the best. Karin quickly blended with the ground, allowing her to travel under their feet.

Kiba was not going to allow the woman to outwit him with her jutsus, so he began sniffing the ground for a familiar scent. Akamaru joined in the search for Karin's scent. The woman appeared out of nowhere at grabbed Neji's foot. "I got you" Karin snickered. She slowly dragged Neji down into the ground and was absorbing his chakra to intensify her own. Kiba thought there wasn't a moment to waste, so he and Akamaru did their dynamic marking on the area surrounding their fight and Karin.

Karin was thoroughly disgusted by this method because the urine landed on her hair. "My precious hair!" She gritted her teeth and roared, "You'll pay for this, Inuzuki!"

Neji was not going to surrender himself to this woman. True, she was powerful, but there must be some sort of weak point. He suddenly thought of something. Instead of doing the Hakke Hasangeki with his palms, he could try to concentrate on the chakra points on the bottom of his feet. Taking to a few seconds to gather his chakra to the bottom of his right foot that was near Karin's shoulder, he forced the chakra attack out. In doing that, his shoe ripped to pieces because of the strong force of chakra that was emitted from his foot.

Being melded with the ground was disadvantageous because her movements was slowed down a bit, so the side of her shoulder was burned by the attack. She let her right hand, but reinforcing her grip of Neji's left foot. She continued to absorb Naji's chakra which was weakening him a bit. Neji himself felt it. His body's chakra was being emptied out slowly.

Naruto no longer willing to wait on the sidelines, joined in combat. He quickly did his kage buushin no jutsu and created a large rasengan. He was double the size of the normal ones, but it also represented Naruto's impatience to end the fight. He pounded his rasengan into the ground where Karin was close to. Karin tried to escape the other way while pulling Neji along, but Sakura had reached it first. Sakura, using her superhuman strength punched the ground as hard as she could, causing a slight tremor to the earth's surface. Having no choice but to escape the ground, Karin pushed herself from the earth and onto one of surrounding trees. Sakura and Naruto began destroying the trees. One by one, it fell. Kiba was doing his part in attacking Karin. "Dual Wolf Fang!" Akamaru transformed into a Kiba look-alike, and both of them began their assault on Karin.

_Urrgh! This is going to be one tough fight!_ Sweating a little Karin dodged their advances one by one, with Kiba hitting the closest to her. Kiba and Akamaru were travelling in sonic speed with their aerial attacks. While she was paying attention to Kiba and the others, Neji had hit his palm against Karin's elbow, blowing off one of her chakra points. The pain made her relinquish her hold on Neji's left foot.

There was no way she could go up against these four people. Her only option was to retreat and treat her wounds but even that was difficult to do right now. "Dance of Kagura!" Her feet became light and quick. She was faster than Kiba now, and in a flash she kicked down Kiba, Akamaru and Neji. The damage it did was phenominal, considering the amount of chakra that she absorbed from Neji. His chakra had slowly fused with hers and she was going to make good use of it.

"Looks interesting! Hand to hand combat is more in my department. I'll be your next opponent!" Lee said with excitement. He felt that he had found another formidable opponent and was ready to try out his skills. Untying the weights to his legs and arms, he ran at Karin with furious speed. Karin wasn't going to allow Lee to surpass her abilities. They punched and kicked at each other, and every time their body parts made contact, a spark would fly. Karin was confident in her skills, and while she was meleeing Lee, she was preparing her chakra for the next jutsu. "Kagura rage!" Kagura's eyes widened at this jutsu. The chakra in her body was mutating and soon her pores were emitting green flames. Using her agility, Kagura flew towards Lee and consumed him in her green flames. The flames were hotter than the normal fire. It also had an acidic burn to it, which even Lee couldn't take. Lee knocked flung his entire body onto the ground in hopes of extinguishing it.

Kiba detected something weird about the flames. "Those flames are infused with some sort of weird smell. Something like... deterioration of flesh. The smell is horrendous. Ughh... it's burning my senses." Kiba squeezed his nostrils closed, because the effects of the flames were unpleasant to him.

Lee and Kiba were both suffering from the poisonous and deadly effects of Karin's jutsu. Naruto, Sakura, Neji, Shikamaru and Chouji were thinking as quick as they can in order to come up a viable strategy. Their opponent's jutsu was eerie and strange because there was nothing like it before.

"You're all going to die and Sasuke is going to thank me for what I did, and he'll come grovelling at my feet begging for my forgiveness!" Karin was absolutely out of her mind, her emotions were at their peak and she had trouble controlling them. Unfortunately that was one of the side effects of using this jutsu.

Naruto noticed that because being one of the vessels of the kyuubi, when he releases its power he would lose all self-control. Then again, he also thought, unlike him, her chakra is limited. One thought flashed into Naruto's mind; what they could do is wear her out until her chakra is depleted. It was pretty risky, but they had to try. Naruto tried to signal Sakura and the others to move a bit closer so he can inform them of his plan. They understood so right now the best thing they could do was improvise.

"Sakura, you go and take a look at Lee, and Neji and see how they are doing." Nodding his head at the other members, "Ikou dattebayo!"

Naruto conjured his kages and they ran around Karin. While his kages were distracting Karin, Naruto his other kage hid a distance from Karin and began gathering the sage chakra. Shikamaru recognized immediately what Naruto was trying to do, so began to help in distracting Karin. Chouji bloated up and bounded towards Karin in super human speed with his meat tank jutsu. At the same time, Naruto's kages began to use some of their aerial weapons like kunais and makabishis. Karin, of course easily dodged them, and returning the attack by ten fold, striking the kages down with several of her own weapons. The kages immediately disappeared into a puff of smoke, upon being struck by Karin's weapons. Seeing that the pesky kages were gone, Karin prepared to lunged herself at Chouji, but got hit instead. Chouji continuously knocked her down with the meat tank rollings. Karin was wondering why this happened. Surely her agility would have been able to allow her to avoid some of these slower attacks. Then she realized her feet were stuck to the ground. Her hands were becoming more heavy and soon she was unable to lift them at all.

It dawned on her as to what was happening. "Nothing less of the genius of the Nara clan. But don't think I didn't expect that!" Her chakra flow was reversed in her body, and instead of remaining static, her body began tug on Shikamaru's shadow. Shikamaru tried to retract his shadow, but it was being bind to Karin.

Out of nowhere, Naruto jumped down onto Karin and readying his rasengan. Quickly throwing it at Karin, he jumped backwards just to avoid the huge explosion from the attack. Karin did not act fast enough and barely managed to dodge it. By this time, her body was thoroughly fatigue by the high maintenance of chakra. It was slowly seeping away and her odds of winning was becoming more and more elusive.

"Kuchiyose: Gamaguchi Shibari" Naruto summons the mouth of a toad, creating an barrier to prevent Karin's escape. Her feet slowly sank into the wet, gooey flesh. The flames did not seem to affect the toad barrier much. Chouji went on and enlarge his hand to grab hold of Karin. Shikamaru shadow binding jutsu reinforced the entrapment. Naruto prepared his rasengan and punched it into Karin's chest. The fierce lady was defeated and her body laid limp on the ground. Before she breathed her last breath, she whispered Sasuke's name and died.

Her quest for vengeance can no longer be fulfilled.

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"Obaasan, did you need help with the dishes?" Hinata felt guilty for staying at the old lady's house for so long that she couldn't but ask to help with the daily chores. Sasuke, who saw how Hinata had worked, begrudgingly agreed to help the old lady as well. However he liked watching Hinata work. She was vibrant and lovely when she worked each day. The flush in her cheeks, the wisps of her flying about because she was running across the floor with a towel. She hardly ever sweat when she was out in the sun washing the clothes. Hustling and bustling in the kitchen put Hinata's figure in an advantageous position for his eyes to scan. He thoroughly enjoyed spending time with her.

"Sasuke go set up the table, we're almost done with dinner here!" Hinata called out to Sasuke. He thought to himself that even her voice was wonderful.

He began to organize the setting of the table, and scooped rice into bowls while waiting for the women of the house to carry out the dishes for the night. The ate and chatted, the evening went by pleasantly. Little did they know that the old lady had another plan for them...

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"You freakin idiot! I want some sort of aphrodisiac! Last time you gave me laxatives and my guests were constantly hogging the bathroom! You know how long that took me to clean! Get it right this time, or I'm going to knock you on the back of your head, got it sonny!" Outraged the old lady was flailing her hands in the air. Before she had tried to get the youngsters to get together by using some more vulgar tactics like sticking love potions into their food. The result was quite unpleasant because the youngsters spent hours and hours in the lavatory, preventing her from going when she needed to.

"I'm really sorry ma'am." The owner of the medicinal stand took a big gulp because he knew what the old lady was capable of. One time, when he got her the wrong cold medicine, which worsened her headache, she beat him with a wooden cane. It nearly broke his leg. From that time on, he vowed to never make a mistake like that again, but it seemed he was careless this, again. "I'll get you that aphrodisiac immediately." He handed her a little bottle of white powder.

"Are you sure this is the right one?" She quirked her brow in question, making the owner slightly nervous.

"Y-y-yes-s, I'm po-po-positive," the owner managed to respond.

"You _better_ be right. Otherwise..." The old lady stuck her fist up in front of the owner's face, threatening to punch him. Then she walked away, leaving the owner slighted deflated and relieved.

All the way back the old lady just smiled as to what was going to happen tonight! "This is sure going to be interesting." She hummed a lively tune while she walked back to her house.

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"Gochisousamadeshita." The three of them clapped their hands together, a sign of the completion of devouring their meal. The old lady set the plates onto the tray, so she could carry them off into the kitchen for washing. She pushed herself slowly off the floor. Hinata tried to stop her from getting up and said, "Let me do it Obaasan. You must be exhausted from today's grocery shopping and other household chores. I don't mind taking them for you." Hinata quickly got to her feet but was stopped midway by the old lady.

The old lady looked warmly into Hinata's eyes and tenderly said, "Don't worry about it. You're like a daughter to me. Since my real daughter left me for another man and died in a mission, I haven't had any guests here for a long time. Don't worry yourself over something so trivial. After all, isn't it a mother's job to look over her daughter and take care of her." The old lady straightened her back and exclaimed, "And you look at these old bones, they need to work out otherwise I'm fossilized and won't be able to move any more." She patted Hinata's gently and walked off with the tray of dinnerware.

When the old lady slid the door closed, she quietly locked the doors. _There's escape this time. _"Fufufufufu," you chuckled. Off you went to the kitchen.

Hinata and Sasuke sat across from each other. Disliking the silence between them, she attempted to initiate conversation. But with Sasuke, it has always been somewhat difficult because his replies often came in the form of one word or nods. She was beginning to understand him a little more, and she could sometimes read his body language to know what he was thinking.

"Sasuke-kun, ano, do you want some fruits? I could go and cut you some." She looked at Sasuke nervously, and saw that the corner of his mouth twitched a little. Surprisingly he said, "I wouldn't mind if we could have a piece of watermelon. Even peach is fine."

"Okay." Hinata shot straight up from the floor, but immediately felt hot and dizzy. Her face began to flush in a hot red. Sasuke was alarmed and walked straight towards Hinata.

"Sasuke... I feel really weird. My whole entire body is hot and I feel really light headed. What should I do?" Bewildered, Sasuke went to get some water but stopped by Hinata's vise grip. She forcefully turned him around, made him look at her. His eyes widened at the treasures that she beheld.

What is going to happen next?

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**Sorry people, haven't had much time to type this story because I have been busy with exams and such. I will try my best to update whenever possible, so please be patient with me. I hope you liked this chapter and again a reminder is that the story will end in 4 chapters. The length of the chapters will also increase therefore will take longer! Hopefully the next release will be completed by Halloween. **

**Hint for next chapter: OOOOOh, Lala, something juicy is about to happen!**

**(recently updated 11-2-09 with slight correction. Thank you for pointing it out! ^^ Also, I will try to get back to writing but unfortunately work has been piling up for school, so time is sparse. However, once I have time on the weekend, I'll try to write as much as I can! Thank you for your continuous support!)  
**


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimers: All characters that exist in this story did not originate from me but the creator of Naruto, Masashi Kishimoto. The events in this story are fictional and should not coincide with real life events. However, if they do, then please know that it was done unintentionally and unknowingly. All copyrights are reserved for this story. Thank you and enjoy!**

**Oh yeah... if this is considered mature content, please let me know so I can change the rating at once. Don't want to get into trouble :P  
**

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Hinata was unsure as to what was happening to her body. The heat sensations flowing through her were slowly controlling her, intensifying her desire. She felt scared, at the same time, her vision was blurring and replacing it with carnal lust for the man that was before her. Her grip was tightening on his shoulder, but not in a painful way; just enough force to keep in stationed in her line of sight. She had slipped the sides of her gown down her shoulders, exposing some milky-white flesh that tantalized and fascinated Sasuke, evident in his awestruck expression.

She puckered her lips a little and licked them to moisturize it. Without warning, she pressed her lips to Sasuke's, moving and brushing them together so they could better fit each other.

Sasuke let out a low groan escape from his throat. He was too shellshocked to respond to Hinata's advances because he never knew she was capable of such seductive tactics. But then again, he liked this part of her as well, the fiery siren that stirred his inner passions. He slid his arms around her waist, pulling her body closer to his, feeling the full length of her warmth against his. But it was not enough for he began to slowly strip her of her clothing. Meanwhile, their kissed ran deeper and deeper and the mating of the mouths turned into sword fights of power, tongue against tongue.

Hinata was becoming more and more impatient as the seconds went by, her body's temperature was increasing at a rapid rate and she needed to relieve it. She tugged hard on Sasuke's clothes until all of them fell to the ground and they were skin to skin.

The touching of each other's body took moments before they delve into the most primitive mating ritual and there Sasuke had taken Hinata's first time. However Hinata did not stop there. Due to the fact that the old lady had put a little more than one dosage of aphrodisiac potion into Hinata's soup, she couldn't stop with one time. Therefore their mating ritual continued on until Hinata and Sasuke were both weak. Hinata was the first to fall asleep, followed by Sasuke, and they slept in each other's arms.

Not longer after, the sun began to light the morning sky, crushing the shadows under its illumination.

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The old lady ran towards the medicinal stand owner with an expressionless face. The owner was scared to death because he expected another beating from the old lady. Wondering to himself, _Could I have given her the wrong potion again? But that is not possible, in consideration to the time I took to pick out the right one. Uugghh! What should I do? She's going to kill me! Better start running now!_ The owner quickly packed his bags of medicinal potions and was ready to dart off before the old lady caught him by the leg.

"You! Where do you think you are going?!" The old scowled at the owner, making the owner squeak involuntarily.

"I I I don't know know wh-what you are ta-talking a-about," the owner managed to say through his chattering teeth. He was scared out of his wits. Then the old lady began to raise her hand. Thinking that she was going to punch him, he cringed reflexively and shook like a scared-to-death child. Instead of striking him, the old lady gave him a pat on the back and smiled warmly at him. "Thanks to you, I finally got what I wished for. Here's your money for the medicine which I forgot to give you yesterday. So here you go." The old lady put the money into the owner's pockets and released her hold on him. Nodding at the doctor, she turned and left.

"Phew... I thought she was going to wring my neck or something," the doctor said. After breathing the sigh of relief, he continued on with his business. However, not long after, several ninjas appeared before the owner to ask him about something.

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Hinata was stirring quietly from her deep slumber. Her eyes remained closed because she felt sore all over and was not ready to get out of bed yet. She gave the air a quick sniff and took in the scent of something masculine and pleasant. The warmth surrounding her made her all the more reluctant to get up from her position. Locating the source of heat, Hinata tried to snuggle closer to it, wriggling a little in the process. That movement led the object next to her snuggle closer as well. In addition, something hard was starting to press itself against her stomach. In less than a second, Hinata's eyes shot wide open and she sat up in a flash. The memories of last night were recalled in no time, and her face turned beet red. _Oh gosh... I-I-I... Oh my god!_ She was confused and bewildered. After all, that was her first time. Not only that, what was she going to do about Sasuke? How would she face him now?

Sasuke, who woke up while Hinata began her internal struggle, was just smiling inwardly at the little fiery temptress that flamed up his passion and made him lose all self-control. Usually he tried to resist such things, for the sake of not being emotional or physically attached to anyone, but this time, the experience was quite different. The connections of their bodies made him feel whole, and emotionally un-detached. After his clan's obliteration and the quest for vengeance, he felt devoid of any type of feeling. He even thought that he was a person incapable of any type of love, but Hinata, this soft and innocent creature had touched something within. He was scared at first, but he's willing to peal the layers of emotional barricades so long as Hinata was the one.

Not allowing Hinata to think too much on her own, for she might start to really really regret their actions of the past night, he slid his arms around her shoulders and pulled her down next to him. "Hush, it's still early. Just go back to sleep." Exhaling loudly, he pretended to fall back into sleep, when in fact, he was just relishing Hinata's curves against his body.

Then all of sudden, the door was slid open and in jumped the old lady. "Rise and shine, my butt naked youngsters!" She even held a metallic gong in her hand, ready to create some clanging noises. Smiling smugly to herself, she was satisfied with the outcome of her hard efforts. The two people that were in the spotlight were scrambling all over, picking and putting on pieces of clothing as fast as they could.

After they were done with that, the old lady set up breakfast for every one to eat. Hinata only hid her face with her head done, dying of embarrasment. On the contrary, Sasuke was smiling on the inside, but he couldn't help but being a little annoyed at the old lady. "You damn old hag, you could at least knock first before you enter the room. Did you really want to see me butt naked?!" Sasuke exclaimed.

"Don't you dare use that tone with me. Remember this is my house. I should be able to do whatever I please. Anyhow, I had to look out for my dear Hinata." She managed to hold back a chuckle.

"Yeah right, you scheming, conniving, ugh, you were the one--" Sasuke was cut off abruptly by the old lady's shout out, "Oh my god! The food is getting cold! Have you no manners? Don't make Hinata wait." The old lady glared at Sasuke for a second and signaled him to look at Hinata, who was dying of embarrassment. They both reached a mutual consensus on not to mention the events of the previous night anymore. The three quickly ate their meal, cleaned up and started their daily chores.

During the late afternoon, the wind gusted through the air, but the sky remained clear of clouds. It was wondrous and the temperatures were just about right. Hiding behind the bushes near the outskirts of the house was Neji, Sakura, Lee, Chouji, Shikamaru, Kiba and Naruto. Lee's injuries had not fully recovered, but he insisted that they find Hinata for she could be in serious danger. The others agree unanimously. Shikamaru, then tracked the scent of Hinata towards the direction of this village. The detected a similar scent on the owner of the medicine shop and asked him whether they had seen two strangers living this. The owner pointed them towards the direction of a little cottage not too far away from the market of the village.

They had expected that Hinata was held hostage by Sasuke, so when Neji saw Hinata come out of the cottage, he wanted to jump out and rescue her. But Naruto stopped him, and they realized that Hinata was just doing chores. Likewise, Sasuke was wiping down the floor. For all the members of the group, Sasuke seemed so out of place since it was quite unusual to see him cleaning. At the current time, Hinata did not seem to be in any danger. However, Neji was getting more and more impatient because he was suppose to bring Hinata back. The others did not want to alarm this picturesque scene; the two seemd so at peace. Due to Neji's careless movement, he snapped a twig with his foot, and both Hinata and Sasuke became alarmed.

Luckily they were saved by a kitty that walked up to kitty curled around Hinata's ankle, rubbing its head against it and purring out of pleasure. Sasuke told the kitten to scat, but the kitty would not relinquish its territory. Hinata chastised Sasuke for being mean to the cute kitty, which she lifted up and started cooing at it. The kitten enjoyed the attention very much and purred even louder, making Sasuke jealous.

Suddenly Sasuke turned his head toward the direction where the Konoha ninjas were situated at and said "You can come out now. I know you're there."

Neji, out of everyone else, was the first one to leap down and speak to Sasuke. He stated loudly, "I have come to retreive you and Hinata. You should surrender yourself, Sasuke, for your crimes against the Konoha village. Tsunade-sama will definitely help you, so it's not too late to turn back." After he finished his little speech, the other members also came forward.

"Sasuke, please come back. Every one, including Kakashi-sensei, has been looking forward to seeing you again. We could become a team and complete our missions together. Not only that, you can fulfill Itachi's wish in protecting the village" Sakura pleaded.

Hearing his brother's name made his temper flare up. _How dare they mention his name! It was because of that reason that he killed his entire clan and causing me to murder my own brother. Konoha ninjas, you'll pay._ Sasuke activated his sharingan.

Noticing this, Hinata understood that Sasuke was going to fight them all. She didn't want that to happen, because no matter who gets hurt, she'll be sad as well. Hinata shouted, "Don't Sasuke-kun." She grabbed onto his arms, and tried to be sooth him, "Don't Sasuke-kun. Please. I don't want any one of you to get hurt."

Sasuke glared at Hinata, which frightened her because this vengeful Sasuke was completely new to her. "Do you think they can really hurt me? Don't underestimate me!" He scowled.

Hinata, trying seem unfrightened, implored, "Sasuke, please" Hinata began tearing up, "please don't do this. I don't want to lose any of you, especially you. I-I-I, " she was trying hard to force the words out of her mouth. "I love you! Please don't leave me alone." The faucet in her eyes began pouring uncontrollably, and her silent cries shook her entire body.

Sasuke expression softened a little, and he smoothed Hinata's hair. It was response to her affections, as if the touch was the words _I love you._ He quickly changed back, and activated his mangekyo sharingan. He tried to burn them with his stare.

"Quick! Avoid his stare because it'll burn you!" Shikamaru shouted. The members jumped away from each and started circling the couple in accelerated pace. Even though they were fast, Sasuke had no problem catching the ninjas within his line of vision. Kiba's ankle was the first to light in black flames.

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**Will continue, and the story should end in 3-4 more chapters! More intense fights are going to come.  
**


	11. Chapter 11

**Disclaimers: All characters that exist in this story did not originate from me but from the creator of Naruto, Masashi Kishimoto. The events in this story are fictional and should not coincide with real life events. However, if they do, then please know that it was done unintentionally and unknowingly. All copyrights are reserved for this story. Thank you and enjoy!**

**The long awaited release of the next chapter is here! I've been working on and off on this chapter because of my school work and stuff. So piece by piece I was able to complete it. XD I'll need to start on the new chapter soon!  
**

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_A recap of the events from last episode_: Hinata and Sasuke had consummated their relationship with the help of the old lady. The Konoha ninjas have discovered Sasuke's whereabouts and they got into a fight. Kiba's ankle burned in black flames...

Kiba tried to extinguish the fire, but to no avail. Noticing Kiba's predicament, Sakura went to help him put out some of the fire using Fuuka Houin (a fire sealing method). In a short period of time, the Amaterasu flames had scald Kiba's flesh to a pink-brownish color. Kiba was biting onto his lip while Sakura administered the treatment.

Meanwhile the group continued to avoid Sasuke's vision. Naruto conjured up his kage buunshin to distract Sasuke, but he was not easily fooled. Each and every one of them disappeared as they ran into Sasuke's line of sight.

Lee jumped down on Sasuke's unexpectedly with his lightning speed. The weights had been removed from both his arms and legs, making him more agile. Sasuke quickly removed a kunai from his waist belt and pointed it at Lee's neck. The kunai was inches away, and came close to penetrating Lee's throat, but Lee leaped back in the nick of time. The two ninjas clashed the melee weapons in mid-air, both fighting on an equal level.

While Hinata watched them in nervous tension, Neji walked towards her and grabbed her hand. "Neji, please tell them to stop!" Hinata pleaded.

"Hinata-sama, you know that can't happen. It was our mission to retrieve Sasuke, and for the honor of our family as well as the Konoha ninjas, we must do whatever we can to complete it." Neji tried to explain without hurting Hinata's feelings. "Come on, let's go." Neji tugged Hinata's arm and dragged her to the forest.

_I'm sorry Neji, but I can't leave Sasuke._ Neji was unexpectedly knocked unconscious by Hinata, who laid him on the ground.

She ran back to the fighting ground. There she witnessed the continuation of the fight. Lee's movements were fluid and agile, but the steps were incomprehensible. His cheeks were flushed in a bright hue of red, and his head seemed to be wobbling from side to side. The focus in his eyes were unsteady and he seemed to blubbering nonsense. Evidently, a drunken Lee as fighting Sasuke, which was ten time worse than fighting him when he was sober. His side and spinning kicks, done in quick succession, was pushing Sasuke back a little. Sasuke was growing more and more impatient as the fight dragged on. He smirked and said "This is just child's play. Let me show what a real fight is like!" Sasuke's eyes widened, and he had put all the Konoha ninjas under his ninjutsu.

"Byakugan!" Neji shouted, activating his special technique. He was unable to detect any unusual chakra flow with his ability. The other bodies of chakra he saw were only his team members. Then he saw Akamaru transform into Kiba's replica, and they both did their Dynamic marking, mixing the air with their smell. In doing this, they could smell Sasuke when he disturb the air with his scent by moving. Suddenly, Kiba's head went up and, he and Akamaru did Garouga (Dual Wolf Fang). They sliced through the air, breaking whatever was in their path. Sasuke dodged it immediately, and landed somewhere closer to Neji's line of sight. Neji ran towards Sasuke and so did Lee, following Neji's lead.

Sasuke quickly countered with flash punches, with Neji and Lee protecting themselves by punching back. When their fists knocked against each other, the power of it pushed the three back. Sakura jumped out from behind Sasuke trying to lock him in her hold, but failed. Naruto jumped in the air and was able to grab hold of Sasuke's arm, but his image began to disappear into black mist. And Sasuke suddenly appeared behind Naruto, punching him in the face. Naruto landed on the ground, but he immediately jumped at Sasuke again. Sasuke disappeared and reappeared, catching Naruto's leg and swung him. Then Sasuke thrust Naruto to the ground, creating a small crater in the earth.

"Naruto-kun!" Sakura shouted. Sakura, in a fit of rage, ran toward Sasuke with her fingers aiming for his stomach, but Sasuke dodged it with ease and kicked Sakura on the back to her head. Sakura, blocked the kick with her palm but was still knocked hard to the ground. However, because she blocked in time, she was able to avoid serious brain damage. Neji, Lee and Chouji formed a triangle around Sasuke and them three did their special attacks. Neji's gentle fist palm aimed at Sasuke's heart. Lee quickly activated his first two gates, and was leaped over Sasuke, preparing to attack from the top. Chouji's flesh tank's inhuman rolled toward Sasuke with inhuman speed. At that moment it seemed like Sasuke was surrounded and there was no where to escape. The three collided together with Sasuke, but as soon as that happened, three Sasuke appeared near Neji, Chouji and Lee. Each of them deflected the other's attack.

"We need to get out of the ninjutsu, otherwise Sasuke will always have the upperhand!" Shikamaru was trying to think fast on his feet. However it was quite difficult to think of a solution considering the fact that they were all under the ninjutsu at the same time, who can help them get out?

Suddenly the setting around them was becoming a blur, and they were returned to the real world. "Yo!" Kakashi had his hand raised in greeting. He already had his sharingan activated and wass staring straight at Sasuke, who stared straight back.

"I see you're not dead yet." Sasuke said nonchalantly.

"Well, my life is not worth killing." Kakashi shrugged. A light breeze blew between the two, as if a long awaited battle is about to commence.

Hinata, seeing that they were outnumbered turned to Sasuke at begged, "Sasuke, please just runaway. You won't make it out of here alive. We're outnumbered. I'll distract them while you try to get away."

Sasuke ignored her pleas and continued with his intensive stare with Kakashi. They might have stood there for about 20 seconds, but for the spectators, it felt like eternity. Both did not dare to make a move, knowing the other is well capable of taking advantage of one wrong move. Sweat dotted along Kakashi's and Sasuke's eyebrow line. Hinata pleas were increasingly frantic for her intuition was telling her to have Sasuke escape. With the large number of ninjas standing in their way, many of them her friends, she didn't want any one to get hurt. She set her heart on saving Sasuke. Without hesitating, she ran towards the person that was closest to her, Kiba, and sneaked a kunai from his belt. Immediately, she placed the sharp edge of the blade to her throat and yelled, "Let Sasuke go or I will sever my head!" Naruto, Kakashi, Sasuke and the others turned wide-eye in shock and fear at Hinata's words, especially Neji.

"Hinata-sama, what are you doing? He is our enemy! And you wouldn't bring shame to the Hyuuga house would you?" Neji gently stated. At the words of shame and the Hyuuga family, Hinata's eye brows twitched a little. All her life, she had lived with those words and it weighed heavily in her mind. However, her love's life was on the line, so she tried her best to push the words to the back of her mind.

Her heart was emboldened by the thought of "my love." She stared straight into Neji's eyes, deflecting the disappointment that it seemed to exhibit and stated, "I will not let you capture him and punish him. I love him! And any of you who dares to hurt him will have to answer me first!" In saying that, she pushed the blade deeper into her pale flesh, and cutting it. Warm blood oozed out and dripped onto her pale clothes, staining it with the color crimson red.

"No!" Sasuke cried, and flew to Hinata's side. He grabbed her hand and attempted to remove the kunai from her hands so to prevent her from hurting herself. But it was to no avail and Hinata adamantly clutched onto the kunai's handle. Move blood moved down her skin to her clothes. Sasuke could grind his teeth together because Hinata was hurting herself for his sake.

"If you love her too, you should surrender yourself to us," Sakura tried to persuade Sasuke. Her voice quavered a bit as she stared at Sasuke's pained expression. Never in her life had she seen him like that, so concerned with another individual. Who knew that Hinata had such power over him. Sakura felt her inner thoughts beginning to slowly crumble.

"That is right! If you love Hinata-sama, then you should not let her protect you like that. If you still have some human feelings in you then you should step forward and take your punishment!" Neji said pointedly. "You need to think about this logically. There is nothing for you to gain if you kill all of us and Hinata-sama ends up dying as well. Am I right?" Seeing that Hinata was Sasuke's only weak point, he needed to utilize it as much as possible. Only in doing so can he weaken his resolve and bring Sasuke back to the village.

"No! Don't listen to them!" Her face maintained its composure as well as her voice, but her heart was be beating frantically. She turned and whispered to Sasuke quietly, "Take me hostage and run away! Hurry!"

Sasuke could no endure this, and he pulled Hinata's kunai away from her neck and looked sadly into her eyes, speaking in soft voice, "I still have a man's pride. I will not let the person that I love step in danger for me."

"No, no. No." Hinata's tears slid down her cheeks betraying her fears and grief. Her shoulders shook violently as her sobs wracked her body. Sasuke did not try to touch her afterwards for he feared that if he did, he would do exactly what Hinata asked him to do, runaway. But his pride would not allow it. Even if he did lose, he would lose with dignity and not shame.

Again, he activated his mangekyo sharingan, put his hands together and did a seal. "Katon Gōkakyu no Jutsu!" He blew the fireball in every direction, blazing the trees, and turning the surroundings into a fire circle. To add heat to the situation, Sasuke used his sharingan to light a circle of black flames around his enemies. The konoha ninjas could only walk to the center of the circle in order to avoid the heat. Sakura had to drag Kiba into the center because his injured leg temporarily disabled him.

Sasuke then used created a massive chidori and banged it into the ground towards the direction of where the konoha ninjas were. It created a deep fissure in the ground and a slight tremor in the floor. All of a sudden, the Konoha ninjas fell into a deep hole caused by the powerful impact of the chidori. The konoha ninjas were trapped.

Kakashi looked towards the opening of the hole and thought that if Sasuke was able to create a hole with the chidori, surely if he used the same method to get their way out it would be doable. Then Kakashi focus his chakra into his right fist, creating the illuminant lightning ball, and thrusted it into the wall. He continued to do that three times until it created some sort of tunnel for them. All of the members walked in.

Sasuke glided towards the hole and ready to put his final blow, he threw another burst of fire into it. Immediately right after, Kakashi and the others jumped out from behind him and Naruto had his rasengan thrown towards Sasuke. Sasuke dodged it, but only by a few centimeters. Sasuke stole the kunai from Naruto's belt and pushed the knife against Naruto shoulder and cutting it. Naruto winced a little , but he readied his another rasengan on his right hand and pushed it into Sasuke's stomach. Sasuke did not anticipate this movement, and he received a direct hit from it, which threw him back a couple of feet. Blood spewed from Sasuke's mouth.

"Ready to give up?" Kakashi asked.

Sasuke just wiped the blood from his mouth and smiled.

* * *

From the far distance, the old lady was saw that there was smoke coming from the direction of her house. She doubted that Hinata and Sasuke could create such a mess. After thinking and rethinking, she became really worried. _What dangers could be lying ahead?_ She thought to herself. Pulling up her sleeves, she ran toward the house.

* * *

Hinata wanted to run towards Sasuke, but Neji and Chouji were holding her back. "Let me go!" She tried to yank her arms free and almost succeeded, but both of the tightened their grip on her arms. Her white flesh was turning red under their hold. But she did not care too much about the pain because she was too concerned with Sasuke.

Sasuke continued to smirk. He activated the his cursed seal of heaven. His body gradually metamorphosized into a hideous monster. The mark on his belly slowly healed, allowing Sasuke to stand erect among his adversaries.

Naruto remembered this transformation. It was during Naruto's final attempt to stop Sasuke from leaving the village that he saw this form. The only to fight to this power is with more power. It has been years since the fight, but he was sure this time he'll be able to defeat it. The reason for Naruto's certainty was that after years of training, he had finally mastered control over the kyuubi. Though unwillingly at first, the kyuubi had agreed to form a partnership with Naruto due to Naruto's ability to reinforce the seal that his father had created. Also, acknowledging the fact that he cannot live without the host, thus he could only compromise according to his current situation.

"You sure you want to do this?" The Kyuubi spoke to Naruto.

"Let's work together." Naruto said.

"Hmmph. Puny human, as you wish." The large orange eyes stared straight into Naruto's. He walked toward him, ready to merge with him. Internally, Naruto felt a surge of power. The large amount of chakra that was coming from the kyuubi was flowing into Naruto. Externally, Naruto quickly molded the chakra into tails, resulting in the formation of nine tails.

Without waiting, Sasuke immediately charged toward Naruto in lightning speed. Naruto's reflexes were increased tenfold after his transformation and he easily caught Sasuke by the arm and threw him over. Sasuke simply did a mid-air flip and landed on his feet. In less than a second, Naruto was in front of Sasuke, trying to grab for his shoulders. Sasuke was surprised at how fast Naruto was. Caught off guard, Sasuke jumped further back into the flames.

"What the hell are you guys doing at my house!?" The bewildered old lady blared. He looked at the number of ninjas on her property and felt lightheaded. Her house was in tattered ruins because it had caught fire from the surrounding trees. Then she spotted Hinata and her two capturers. Disregarding their ninja clothing, she ran toward them, hitting Kiba and Neji, forcing them to relinquish their grip on Hinata. Surprised by the old lady, their grip indeed loosened a bit, allowing Hinata to escape.

At this moment, Hinata was pained with helplessness. Tears silently rolled down Hinata's face as she continued to watch Naruto and Sasuke fight each other.

Naruto was hot on Sasuke's trail. Even after Sasuke released all the stages on his transformation, Naruto retained the upper hand.

"Kage bunshin no jutsu!" Naruto cloned himself, and creating a mirror image to himself, a clone that also carried the nine tails on his back. Sasuke was immediately alarmed by that because it seemed highly impossible for another clone to contain the large amount of chakra that was flowing inside Naruto and still be able to retain its shape. At that moment he felt barricaded on both sides. He needed to find a way to destroy the clone before he becomes exhausted from the fight. Sasuke leaped towards the clone, clamping down on it with both his legs. With a quick motion, he tossed the clone in the air. Sasuke shot himself up from the floor with one arm, speeding pass the clone in the air. "Hyaku man Ketatamashii!(One Million Piercings)" Sasuke's arms plunged and penetrated the clone with lightning speed in millions of consecutive movements. The clone, after enduring the attacks, disappeared in smoke. Sasuke looked at Naruto for a split second and noticed Naruto's unchanging expression.

Another clone that disguised itself as part of the tree sprinted from behind and grabbed hold of Sasuke by holding him tightly with both arms across the chest. Sasuke tried to wrench himself free but the vice grip over his chest could not easily be released. Then from below Sasuke, a pair of hands grabbed onto Sasuke's feet, binding him tightly that Sasuke was completely at Naruto's mercy.

"Have you repented on what you did Sasuke?" Naruto stared dead on at Sasuke.

"Heh" responded Sasuke. He sneered at Naruto, as if restraining him with physical means was going to stop him. Sasuke used his sharingan to push pass the layers on mental barricade the kyuubi had prepared, and stood face to face with the monster.

"As predicted, Uchiha clan's kekkai genkai. But you won't be able to defeat me at this rate." The kyuubi's large red eyes stared dauntingly at Sasuke. "Let me show some of my real power!" it declared loudly. Gradually Sasuke began sinking to the floor, right in front of where the kyuubi was standing. He decided he was not going to fall that easily, not without a good fight. Snakes spurred out from Sasuke's sleeve, with their deadly fangs aimed at the kyuubi. However, the kyuubi easily deflected the attack with the smack of its giant paws, slamming the snakes' heads into the wall. Following that, Naruto appeared not too far away from Sasuke.

"I knew you would be here, Sasuke." Naruto said. "It's time to finish this Sasuke, once and for all!"

"I won't lose." Sasuke responded. His eyes again, became the mangekyou sharingan. He looked around him and blazing the entire area with black flames. However, his eyes suffered heavy damaged from the mangekyou sharingan, which resulted in continuous bleeding. "Ah!!!!" Sasuke screamed in pain. His vision began to blur and darken. He knew his vision was fading, and he'll soon be blind.

"Sasuke." Naruto called after him. The black flames were suppressed and eventually extinguished by the kyuubi. The creature stared long and hard at Sasuke, who knelt on the ground, eyes staring lifelessly at the floor. "You lost the battle. Now squirm!" yelled the kyuubi. Naruto stopped the creature in time to save Sasuke. "Leave him to me," commanded Naruto. The kyuubi grumbled and unwillingly let Naruto have his way.

* * *

Several moments passed since Naruto and Sasuke had entered the scorching fire scene. Hinata's body shook with fear, fear that Sasuke will be defeated by Naruto. However, these fears were not based on false justifications. Since Konoha village's invasion by the Akatsuki, leaving a trail of destruction and turmoil in the village, Naruto had put it very hard upon himself for not being able to do more. Therefore, during the Konoha's recovery, Naruto underwent serious training and transformation. Through the entire process, Hinata was one of the people that bore witness to Naruto's growth, and the rate at which Naruto changed was stunning. Most of the time, Hinata watched in awe. Thinking about this made waiting for Sasuke's reappearance nervewracking .

Pulling out from the old lady's hold, Hinata ran toward the direction that Sasuke went. Hoping to get there and save him before it's too late.

* * *

"It's over," Naruto stated as he saw Hinata entered his peripheral vision. The moment the battle ended, Naruto knew that Sasuke's life will be in jeopardy, but his obligation toward the village was stronger. But perhaps Tsunade-sama will be able to convince the Diet members to imprison Sasuke and not kill him. During Sasuke's imprisonment, maybe, he'll be able to clear his head of all hatred he felt towards Konoha village. Even though what the village head ordered Itachi to do was unforgivable, but the other villagers were innocent. They were not involved in this scheme whatsoever. Silently thinking to himself, he watched Hinata dropped to her knees right near Sasuke's head.

Hinata pulled Sasuke into her embraced and wept. Her tears overflowed and trickled onto Sasuke's face. He tried to reach for her face, to feel the contours its contours, carving her features into his memory and holding it there because he's completely blinded. There were dry traces of blood from his eyes down his cheeks.

"You are the most beautiful and kind hearted person I've known all my life." Sasuke smiled gently toward the direction of where he thought Hinata's face was. "Don't cry." He tried to wipe the tears off the face. "When you cry, I feel like my heart will be crushed into pieces."

Upon hearing that, Hinata tried to subside her weeping, but unsuccessfully. "Oh... Sasuke." Hinata sighed. Suddenly Naruto's presence began to weigh on her. She took out her kunai and looked furiously toward Naruto. In a flash, her face changed to that of pleading. "Please, Naruto-kun, please don't take him back. He won't have a chance to escape execution."

Sasuke patted Hinata's hand, and said with resignation, "It's alright."

"_Suiton: Daibakufu no Jutsu!"_ Kakashi chanted and released a wave of water to put out the fire that was eating up the forest.

"Oh! Hinata!" The obaasan ran towards Hinata and held her shoulders. Tears sparkled on the corner of her eyes.

The other members of group joined Naruto. "Let's go." Naruto said. Neither Sasuke or Hinata resisted Lee, Chouji and Neji when they helped them up. With heavy hearts, the group returned to Konoha for Sasuke's fate to be decided.

* * *

**Sorry that it took so long for me to update on the story. Many things happened since the last chapter so I never really had the time to properly sit down and write. I'm hoping to make the next chapter the final in this series and finally get started on the other series that I had written a prologue for. I'm really thankful that you guys kept up with the series despite the long waiting. Truly and really grateful for your support. Please look forward to next chapter, which should be out by the end of next month! (If my research paper does not get in the way.)**


	12. Chapter 12

**Disclaimers: All characters that exist in this story did not originate from me but from the creator of Naruto, Masashi Kishimoto. The events in this story are fictional and should not coincide with real life events. However, if they do, then please know that it was done unintentionally and unknowingly. All copyrights are reserved for this story. Thank you and enjoy!**

**This is the last installation of the series. ^_^ **

* * *

"No you can't do that!" Tsunade's palm slammed down on the table. She cannot believe how hardheaded her council members were. Their session had gone on since the morning, and continued to convene until now because the council members, Homura Mitokado and Koharu Utatane, were bent on killing Sasuke to cover up their decision on eradicating the Uchiha clan.

"The Uchiha clan were set to on overthrowing the village and in order to protect the security of the other villagers, sacrifices had to made. Itachi had made a right decision." Mitokado had declared with righteousness.

"You made him chose between his family and friends with the lives of the villagers! I'm sure there was another choice, if you thought carefully about it. But as old as you are, your judgment begins to elude you!" Tsunade retorted at the old man's words.

"Excuse me Tsunade. We were here long before you were Hokage and we had supported the Third to the best of our ability. And during those years of service, we had experience relatively prosperity!" Utatane huffed with indignation.

"However, these were against the wishes of the Third and you know it. Sensei would never have sacrifice one entire clan for the security of others. He is a true man of honor and you were selfish in the imagination that your decisions could secure the happiness of others. Well, Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke themselves along with their friends do not feel the same way I'm sure." Tsunade said loudly. _It seems that there is no way to convince these two to change their decision about Sasuke when I can't appeal to their guilt on this matter. And the meeting with the nobles will be held tomorrow to determine Sasuke's fate. Gosh! Time is something that I cannot waste on these two._

"The youngsters will see that our actions were for the greater good of the village. They are still young, so they do not understand that some times you would have to sacrifice one thing for another. We merely thought of the village's security over a clan that was bent on destroying a place they helped to create for something as trivial as power and position. If they can not tolerate us then why should we tolerate them?" Utatane said.

Mitokado nodded in agreement as Utatane granted her piece of mind. Right after she was done, in no time, Mitokado began to input his thought, as if to smother Tsunade's offenses. " I believe the only thing that we should regret is that we let Sasuke go and not kill him. Such a powerful blood line limit should have been eliminated when we had a chance to do so. He betrayed the village and disgraced us by running away and joining our enemies forces--"

"That is enough!" Tsunade slammed her fist down on the table with such force that it split into two. The tremors resonating from the impact sent the paperwork on her table flying everywhere. The two council members were not alarmed however. Their eyes shone with disapproval. "You speak of betrayal so easily, but then again, we were also the ones who betrayed the Uchiha and Sasuke. It is fact that you sent Itachi to kill his clansmen because you distrusted the Uchiha because they were powerful and threatened the positions of everyone, including the nobles." Tsunade's eyes were fierce with rage, but her voice was deathly calm. "Your selfishness in this business had cost hundreds of lives. When the young ones shouldn't have to be involved, they were swept up in a cycle of hatred that was caused by none others, but your-honorable-selves. I will rectify this, and I will not allow anyone," she stared intensely into the two members in her room, looking from one to the other, " ANYONE, to touch Sasuke or even talk to him besides myself and a few other authorized people to go near him. Because we have already done enough damage. This is an order from the Hokage!" Tsunade made it final and she was not going to allow further tragedy to happen. With much resolve, she dismissed the council members.

* * *

"You have to eat something Oneesama." Hanabi nudged gently on Hinata's shoulder, in hopes of making her turned toward herself so she can help her sister get some food. It has been two days since she gotten anything to eat and Hanabi is worried about Hinata. Even though Hanabi is busy with helping her father with Hyuuga family duties, she still made time to see her sister. Though her sister is timid and sometimes indecisive, but this time, Hinata seemed very determined about something. Hanabi could only guess that it had to deal with the days she was gone for a mission. Perhaps it has some relation to Sasuke, but she wasn't quite sure. How to coax her sister to tell her everything, she wondered. But then again, Hanabi was never the person Hinata confided in. But she did not want to let up the opportunity for them two to spend some sibling time together, for those chances are hard to come by.

She suddenly thought of something regarding Sasuke. "I received news about Sasuke this morning." Her sister immediately sprung to life, but because her sister hasn't eaten for quite some time, that action caused her sister to swoon a little. "Lay down before you faint."

Hinata asked in a weak voice, "What did you hear about Sasuke?" Hinata looked weary, as if to prepare herself for the worst outcome.

"Tsunade-sama was able to convince the council members and the nobles of the village to not execute Sasuke, but under one condition..."

Hinata impatiently tugged at Hanabi's sleeve. Hanabi sighed because she wasn't sure how to break it to Hinata, seeing how scared and worried her sister's eyes were.

A male voice resonated from the doorway, said, "That he has to leave the village forever and never come back. Not only that," Neji walked closer to where Hinata was lying, "but his abilities of using any type of jitsu will be sealed forever. The day of the sealing will take place in 3 weeks. And once his abilities are sealed, they will expel from the village."

"No...no,no,no,no" Hinata's response came in small whispers, tears rolled down her face. She wanted to block out what Neji is informing her.

Neji grabbed her hand and held it tight, attempting to set in the reality of the situation. "You need to listen to me. If he ever tries to re-enter the village, the guards and ANBU members were kill him immediately."

Hinata stopped shaking her head, and she tried to stand up. "I have to go see him! I have to!" Neji and Hanabi tried to restrain Hinata from moving too much because her feet were unsteady. "Let me go! He needs me!" Hinata felt the world spinning around her but before she fell to the ground, Neji caught her and placed her on the futon. Hinata exerted her last bit of energy, and whispered, "He needs me. He's all alone without no one else... I've...go-got... to go... see... him." Hinata fell into unconsciousness.

Hanabi face slightly scrunched in worry and asked Neji, "What are we going to do? We need to help them out."

Neji gently wiped some of the tears stained Hinata's face and answered, "I think I know what to do."

* * *

Sasuke sat in his cell, listening on the noises that surrounded him. There were guards outside walking about, talking occasionally about him and about the Hokage's decision to free Sasuke. They didn't go more into detail about what was to become of him. Surely, the Konoha's council members and the nobles wouldn't just let him off that easily. There must be something else. All of a sudden, there was a female voice at the door. The voice sounded young. Whoever it was was trying to convince the guards to let her in, but they refuse because they weren't authorized to do so. The volume of the voice rose a bit. From this, he knew the young girl was getting impatient. Sasuke sensed another presence near the entrance, it was of a male's. But there was something on his back. He couldn't figure it out, but it was lying almost lifelessly on his back.

After a few moments, the people were finally able to negotiate something with the guards and they came towards Sasuke's cell.

"Open the door and let us in." Sasuke recognized that voice. It was Neji.

The guard replied, "The Uchiha is a C-rank criminal, and his presence is dangerous. We can't just let you in. You need authorization from the Hokage."

"We do have permission from the Hokage." Hanabi said. She was trying to trick the guards, but she's afraid that her mask might slip.

"Where is your proof?" The guard asked.

"Unfortunately I don't have it with me, I--"

"Let them in. It's fine and I can prove that they have Tsunade-sama's permission." Sakura walked in with a sealed scroll. The guards opened and read it. Afterwards, they opened the gate and let them in. "Don't take too long."

Sasuke was curious as to why these people wanted to see him. Then he caught a whiff of something familiar.

Neji placed Hinata 3 feet away from Sasuke. "Hinata..." Sasuke breathed her name. He tried to crawl closer to wherever she was, but the heavy chain prevented any movement.

"Sasuke... I'm here." She wept as she inch herself closer to Sasuke. Finally, as she reached him, she threw her arms around him in an embrace.

Sasuke tried to breathe in her scent and presence. All thoughts were temporarily driven away by his elation on having Hinata in his arms.

"Let's give them a moments together." Sakura suggested, and she lightly pulled Hanabi outside.

"If you need us, we'll be outside." After saying that, Neji followed Sakura and Hanabi out.

"Oh Sasuke." Hinata squeezed tighter, to make sure that Sasuke was not a fabricated figure of her imagination. She snuggled into his chest, taking in his warmth.

Sasuke just silently sat there, his nose in her hair, breathing her in. All the while, he gently brushed his hands down her back, a gesture of comfort and love.

"I thought I will never see you again. I wouldn't know what to do if that happened." Hinata's words resonated with Sasuke's thoughts. He was so choked up with emotions that he could only croak "Me too."

"If you are getting expel from the village, then I will leave with you as well." Hinata declared."I will not leave you alone. No one and nothing can separate us." Hinata gently touched her lips to Sasuke's.

Upon contact, it ignited Sasuke desparity, so he returned Hinata's kiss with more passion, more ferocity. He hugged her body closer because he was scared of losing her. The only other person that really mattered to him other than Itachi was Hinata. The thought of separating made life almost unbearable to him. He would gladly lose everything just so he could be with her. The chests were so close together that it felt like their hearts were beating at the same time. Hinata raised her hand to feel Sasuke's face, marveling at his handsomeness. How come she never noticed how beautiful he was? It made her stomach do some somersaults just thinking that she made this man fall in love with her. _I love you_, she thought. As if Sasuke heard her thoughts, he took the hand that was caressing his face and touched it to his lips. His tenderness made her stomach flutter with love. They both stayed in that position until Hinata had to go. "I will see you soon." Sasuke said as Hinata left the cell.

* * *

The procession of sealing away Sasuke's power happened 3 weeks later. Though it was not a painful process, Sasuke still felt himself being stripped of pride and dignity. His hatred had dissipated because he knew when all this was over, at least Hinata would be there to wait for him. The glimmer of light was shining down his life path. He was no longer alone.

* * *

Hinata walked back and forth near the entrance of the gate for Sasuke.

"Are you sure you're going to do this?" Neji asked. He was concerned for Hinata because just yesterday night, when she broke the news to Hiashi, he did not take it too well. He even threatened Hinata with dissociation with her if she were to leave the house and run off with Sasuke. Hinata had never seemed so strong and determined before, and she stood her ground on her decision to go away with Sasuke.

Hanabi squeezed Hinata's arm and said, "No matter what happens, Oneesan, you will always have our support."

"Thank you." Hinata held Hanabi's hand for a bit. They have never been this close before. It was a pity that only when Hinata was about to leave that she discovers imouto's generous nature.

"Remember to keep in contact with us." Sakura said. Following her were Kakashi-sensei, Iruka sensei, Naruto, Chouji, Lee, Kiba, Akamaru, Gai-sensei, Shino, Kurenai Sensei, Shikamaru, and Ino.

"You have grown to be a wonderful ninja, Hinata, and I couldn't be more proud of you." Kurenai sensei looked at Hinata.

After all of them said their final words to Hinata, Sasuke appeared and was guided by Shizune. The two left the village with neither of them turning back.

"Let's start our new life together." Hinata said to Sasuke. He smiled at her and replied, "Whenever you are, is where I live."

Soon, they disappeared from the Konoha ninja's line of vision.

* * *

"Ha ha! Papa! Come and catch me! Whoo!" The little child with long black hair grinned and sprinted toward the bushes.

"You think you can get away from me, you little rascal!" Laughing, Sasuke chased after his son.

It has been 5 winters since their departure from the Konoha village. Life was peaceful. Hinata had been there for him for the most trying times, when he became frustrated with being blind. However, she was very supportive and overcoming those obstacles made their bond even stronger. They haven't been keeping in contact with Konoha or anyone from there. Sasuke believes that it's the only way to start anew. Suddenly his thoughts were distracted by a harsh yell, "Come eat your lunch!" The old woman barked at both father and son.

Hinata just smiled as she helped set up the table for the meal.

"Coming mama!" The young boy called out, and ran toward the house.

"Take off your shoes before you come in, or you'll be gettin' a spankin'!" The old women pointed towards the child's feet.

A light breeze gently stroke Sasuke's arm. _Itachi, I hope you, dad and mom are watching over us._

* * *

**THE END.**

**Hope you enjoyed that. I'm glad I'm finally finish with this project so now I can move on to Neji and Hinata. (Always had a soft spot for a relationship between those two ^_^) I would like to thank those who had been supporting my project and had continuously read my story, even though it took me a whole entire year to write. (With writers block and all.) If you are interested in more stories that I am writing, please read my story for NejiXHinata. It's called Unforgettable Love. I have the prologue up already, but I'm still working on the first chapter so that may take some time. Thank you guys and hope to hear from you at the comment box!  
**


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